Echoes
by ravyncat
Summary: Mai is the victim of what appears to be a random clown attack. Things quickly take a supernatural turn, and SPR finds themselves on a case with personal significance. Can they discover what is hunting Mai before it claims her soul? Novel spoilers.
1. Living Dead Girl

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Ghost Hunt belongs to Fuyumi Ono. I am just playing with her characters.

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**Echoes: A Ghost Hunt fan fiction**

**Chapter One: Living Dead Girl**

My name is Taniyama Mai, and I am seventeen—almost eighteen—years old. I consider myself to be pretty normal. For some reason though odd things happen to me a lot. I seem to have a talent for attracting trouble. Perhaps my job is partly to blame. This latest mess certainly started on an otherwise normal day while I was on my way to work.

It was a Friday, and I was looking forward to the weekend. I had nothing particular planned but longed for time to spend alone without worrying about anything. School and work were stressing me out.

The muggy air caused my hair to droop almost as soon as I left the Shibuya train station. This was irritating because Michiru had styled it during lunch—her latest career decision was to become a hair stylist—and it had looked really cute when I left from school. Not that it mattered how my hair looked at work. It was the principle of the thing. Even if he never noticed, I still liked looking my best around my annoyingly handsome boss.

Crowds of laughing teenagers blocked the sidewalk and made it hard to walk down Dogenzaka street. Several of the smaller shops and restaurants in the Shibuya ward were having a "Summer Sales Festival", or at least they had strung banners up to that effect. There was music playing and the smell of frying food in the air. It even looked like some shops had hired street performers to attract more business. Wow. No wonder it was so crowded. Normally I would have enjoyed the festive atmosphere, but today it pissed me off. I didn't have time to play, instead I had to go to work.

I was already a bit late, and navigating the crowds was making me later, so my mood was far from happy. School had been exceptionally harsh that day. I had been called out by two different teachers for turning in sloppy work. My face still felt hot from the humiliation.

It was my own fault. I had forgotten those assignments and threw them together at the last minute. I had earned the failing grades, and deserved to be required to redo the assignments. I could agree with all of that. But was it really necessary to publicly humiliate me?

I am a third year high school student due to graduate in the Spring. My teachers made sure to remind me that I won't graduate without better grades. Loudly. In front of everyone in my class. My English teacher even did it in two separate languages when it became obvious I couldn't understand her the first time. No doubt she intended to emphasize my lack of competency in her subject. I can read English fine—well most of the time, if the words aren't too complicated—but for some reason it makes no sense spoken. I don't know why. Maybe my ears just can't process it.

And to think my coworkers always wonder why I don't mind missing school. Geez...

I was not paying much attention to any of the street performances as I walked along the sidewalk. I knew they were going on, but I was more concerned with working my way through the crowd. About half way through a bunch of giggling middle schoolers, I noticed a short man dressed as a Western style clown standing motionless. I noticed him because his costume was so freakish.

Maybe it's just cultural differences, but I don't understand why Westerner's like clowns. To me, the heavy white makeup and giant painted on smiles look sinister. I am not a fan of dark circled eyes or weird wigs. And what the heck is up with rubber ball noses? That is just weird. I don't get what is supposed to be funny or entertaining about them.

This particular clown had painted his face so it sort of resembled a giant smiling skull. He had a red ball on his nose and was wearing a blue frizzy wig. His clothes were odd as well. He was in a light gray business suit with a white shirt and a red tie that matched his nose. On his feet were what appeared to be scuffed brown hiking boots. He did not match the rest of the performers at all. Instead he looked oddly jarring—like some psycho salary man. Gah. Who would be entertained by that?

I avoided his stare and passed by. Or at least I tried to. The clown suddenly bounded towards me and grabbed my arm.

_Crap!_

Immediately I tugged my arm trying to make him let go.

"Found you," he said in a singsong voice while staring at my face. His voice was odd—gruff and high pitched at the same time. It almost sounded like two very different voices speaking in unison. "My sweet little Yurei-chaaan."

"...Eh?"

_Yurei...?_

"...My lovely laaadyyyy...who is dead...dead...deeaad...dead..."

He stepped closer with every repetition of dead until he was way inside my personal space. I backed away and tried to pull my arm loose. He was barely taller than me, which meant he was very short for a man, but he was freakishly strong. I didn't want him near me and he kept standing much closer than was polite. I backed up again to put some distance between us but was stopped when my back hit the wall of a shop.

Not good. Now the creep had me cornered.

**"-- -- -- -- ghost?"** he whispered in English and tilted his head to one side. His eyes were staring at me and something about them made me shiver.

_...**ghost**?_

I blinked at him and pulled again on my arm in an attempt to break his grip.

The names he called me _were_ a bit eerie considering my job. **Ghost** was one of the few English words I could recognize when it was spoken. A **ghost **was the same sort of thing as a yurei.

Nothing about my appearance—I was still wearing my school uniform—advertised that I worked as a part time ghost hunter. It was probably a coincidence. It had to be, right? He was likely just some pervert who had a schoolgirl fetish or something. Ugh.

"Excuse me?!" I snapped at him sarcastically.

There was no way I was going to let some pervert intimidate me. And if I was consciously imitating a certain person's death glare while staring at the odious man, no one would ever know but me. I would have also raised one eyebrow in a complete imitation—it maximized the patented look of scorn—but I couldn't do it. I always ended up raising both eyebrows and then I looked silly and surprised. Totally ruined the effect.

There was a large crowd of shoppers around us and I heard giggles. It probably did look funny to see a schoolgirl frantically trying to get away from such a weird character. Never mind that he was freaking me the hell out. Surely he would stop harassing me once he realized there was an audience.

"Could you please let me go?" I said loudly in an effort to attract attention.

I scanned the crowd looking for someone to assist me. Perhaps this weirdo had a keeper nearby? I wondered if hitting him with my book bag would get me arrested for assault. It did have a few large books inside it.

_Ehhh?_

No one in the crowd seemed to think what was happening was odd. None of them were even looking at me or the clown. The laughing people around me didn't seem to notice my distress. It was like it wasn't happening right in front of them.

_Why can't they see this?_

Something about their odd non-reaction pushed me into panic mode. Something was _really_ wrong with the situation.

"Let me go!" I yelled and pulled away from the clown with all my weight. I managed to pull my arm free, but he caught my wrist with his other hand and then slammed me back against the wall. My head hit it with a loud thud that brought tears to my eyes. No one in the crowd even blinked. There was no way this was normal. I tightened my grip on my book bag.

The clown's real lips grinned at me under the painted on smile, and he gripped my arm so tightly it hurt. He started singing something to me in English again. For some reason the peculiar song caused chills to run down my back. I didn't know what he was saying, and I didn't care. I needed to get away. Now.

I swung my bag at his head with my free hand hoping to distract him. The clown stopped singing abruptly and dodged to one side. I pulled hard on my arm in the opposite direction as he moved, and it made him stumble. Then I kicked him as hard as I could while he was off balance and he doubled over from the impact. My arm was released so suddenly that I tumbled backwards into the wall and then fell and scraped my knees. I scrambled to my feet almost instantly, but the clown still nearly managed to grab me again. Gah. Crazy or not, he was fast.

Fortunately I had managed to hold onto my book bag when I fell. I swung it into his face, knocking his fake nose off, and was able to dodge past him into the crowd. Even though I bumped into several people, none of them noticed me or the clown that was yelling something behind me. I blindly pushed my way past them until I had enough room to run away.

Despite the late afternoon heat, I ran like devils were chasing me. After a short distance, people started seeing me again. I could tell from their surprised expressions as I hurried by. I was too scared to slow down though. I ended up running the rest of the way to the office and didn't stop until I was standing outside the familiar door of Shibuya Psychic Research. I was still scared and upset, but at the same time I felt safer. Even if he had followed me, the clown couldn't hurt me here.

I leaned against the wall beside the door and tried to catch my breath. I was gasping and wheezing too much to enter the office without risking utter embarrassment. My heart was beating too fast and my legs felt weak. I looked down the stairs that led to the ground level of the building, but couldn't see any sign of the clown on the street or in the outdoor cafe below.

Well, at least I had a legitimate excuse for being late this time. I didn't really feel like talking about the clown though. How could I explain something as weird as that? I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. I had no explanation for the latest oddity to enter my life.

It just wasn't believable.

People do not have the power to make an entire crowd blind. I knew enough psychics that I was sure of that. It took PK-LT?...PK something anyway...to affect living things. The most famous psychic I knew of with that power had only managed to do unsavory things to frogs with it. The amount of power needed to affect an entire crowd was beyond comprehension.

Even if the clown had that kind of power, and was somehow able to use it, I doubted he could use it and physically attack someone at the same time. Also anyone that strong would be famous. I had never heard of any famous psychics who liked to cosplay and attack women in their spare time.

So what had just happened to me?

_Am I really awake? Maybe this is just a nightmare..._

Sudden laughter on the street startled me into frantically looking in all directions. Of course nothing sinister was there—just happy people out enjoying a summer afternoon. Everything was so aggressively normal that I felt a bit stupid. I was also feeling dizzy and slightly sick from running in the heat.

Still... It seemed like the street was too peaceful. Like it was a mask hiding something.

_Ahahaha. I really am an idiot._

I decided it would be easier to calm down inside the office. I would make myself some tea to settle my nerves. I needed it. My knees were still shaky, and my hands were noticeably trembling. I felt oddly fragile and didn't like it at all. I opened the S.P.R. door carefully so the bell wouldn't ring and slipped inside. If I was quiet enough, I could probably sneak to the bathroom and tidy up a bit before anyone noticed I was here. That would give me time to compose myself.

"You're late." The words were spoken instantly in a familiar cold voice.

My boss, Shibuya Kazuya or Naru as I had named him, was leaning against my desk in the reception area reading a book. He is not even a year older than me, but has been running S.P.R. since he was sixteen. Apparently he is a genius and graduated from school at some obscenely young age. Naru is one of those annoyingly lucky people who have been blessed with brains and looks—and he knows it. To say he is conceited is an understatement. I call him Naru because it is short for narcissist.

As usual, his slender form was dressed completely in black. His slightly messy black hair was a shade darker than his long sleeved shirt. How he managed to wear that much black on such a hot day and not die was a mystery. He didn't even look up from his book at my entrance. Naru was always like that. He had made the simple act of ignoring someone into an art form.

_Geez...what a rude guy..._

His rudeness helped me though. Irritation chased away some of the weird fragile feeling that had been bugging me.

"...Mai?" he said with a frown. I supposed he wanted me to apologize for being late. He was never interested in excuses, which sucked because I really had one this time. Damn. He looked grumpy—probably due to tea withdrawals. Naru was totally going to think I was making this up.

"Umm...yeah...I-I ran into..." I started with the intention of telling him about the clown. My voice sounded strange and wobbly so I stopped mid sentence. The weird fragile feeling was abruptly back.

He sighed and closed his book with a snap. "I expect you to be on time. Even an idiot should be able to manage that."

Naru looked at me then and I glanced away towards the floor. I didn't feel up to dealing with his intense gaze. I wished my knees would stop shaking. Being late for work was so trivial compared to being attacked that I had an odd urge to laugh. Loudly. For a long time.

_Get a grip, Mai._

"Ah w-well...there was this w-weird...um...c-c-clown..." I said and then stopped when my voice wobbled again. I sounded like I was about to cry. Or laugh. Once that odd laughter started, it wouldn't stop. I bit my bottom lip trying to get some sort of control over myself.

_Crap...I will not have hysterics in front of him. I refuse._

Naru was suddenly standing right in front of me. When had he moved? Had I zoned out or something? He had a look I couldn't decipher in his dark blue eyes. I was completely shocked when he reached out and grabbed my left hand. It was the same hand that had been grabbed earlier by the clown.

"Eh?!" I couldn't help squeaking in surprise. My cheeks warmed in the involuntary blush I always got when he was too close to me.

_W-wha-what?_

His hands were gentle as he stretched out my arm and pushed up the sleeve of my uniform a bit. This uncharacteristic behavior was seriously freaky. What the hell was he doing?! Maybe I _had_ hit my head and was hallucinating. Maybe this entire day really was just a bad dream.

"N-Naru?" I managed, looking up at him in confusion. Damn. He has pretty eyes. They are a blue so dark that sometimes it looks black. Other times they almost look gray. At the moment they were a lovely stormy blue that looked like it might change at any moment to a different color.

_How embarrassing...I'm so easily distracted. Even at a time like this._

Those eyes weren't focused on mine though. He was staring intently at my arm and frowning. I looked to see what was so interesting and gasped when I saw the marks there.

A black and purple hand print completely encircled my arm above the elbow—it was a terrible bruise. Little bloody marks showed at the finger tips like nails had dug into my skin. Another hand print circled my forearm, slightly above my wrist. That one was shaded closer to gray than purple. And then there were little purple and black dents—_finger marks?_—and more scratches along my entire arm. This obvious and, now that I had noticed it, painful proof of the clown attack shocked me.

It didn't even look like my arm. I stared at the horrible bruises and started to shake. I had never seen bruises so bad that they turned black before. Never seen bruises that really looked like hand prints either. I didn't enjoy seeing them on my own body.

"Mai, who did this?"

I couldn't stop staring at my arm. The clown had hurt me—marked me. What if he came after me again? My dizziness returned and I swayed slightly. Oh God. I felt like I was going to be sick.

"I...I told you. A w-weird...c-c-clown...He said...I was...d-dead..."

_Did that odd scared sounding voice really belong to me?_

"A clown? Where?"

"What happened, Taniyama-san?" someone else asked at the same time.

That was a different voice from Naru's. Ah. Lin-san must be here too. For some reason I was having trouble focusing my eyes. All I could seem to see was my arm, everything else was a big blur. I did try to answer him though.

"He told...m-me...I was a **g-ghost**, a yurei...n-no one could...s-see...me..."

Lin-san said something else to me then, but I didn't catch it. My head was hurting and the room seemed darker. I could feel my heart beating in my temples. Gah. I was so dizzy. I hoped I wouldn't throw up. Vaguely I saw Naru say something to Lin-san, but for some reason I could only hear a weird buzzing sound.

Then someone—something?—giggled behind me and I froze. I was so scared I couldn't even breathe. Wait...was that the same laugh I had heard...before?

"Found You!" a horribly familiar high pitched voice whispered in my ear. Its icy breath tickled my cheek. I screamed and flinched away. This had to be a nightmare. Nothing evil could get into the office. The clown could not be here.

No.

My knees collapsed as I turned. I would have fallen, but someone caught me. I saw something that looked like gray smoke trying to manifest in the air. The smoke was the same color as the suit the clown had been wearing. There was a sharp whistle and a ball of white light smashed into the gathering ectoplasm and scattered it. My vision blurred and the entire room seemed to tilt. With the warping of the room came a darkness that seemed to shimmer like millions of black snowflakes. Someone warm held me close, but it wasn't enough to stop me from sliding away into the dark.

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**8/14/08 EDIT: **I decided to move all my author notes to the end of each chapter--just an aesthetic thing. I also went back through and fixed a few things. There were some extra commas and repeated words/awkward phrases that I cleaned up a bit. I still feel like this is the weakest chapter but it gets better from here on out--really.

**AN:** **There are no real spoilers in this chapter, but this will eventually contain them from all novels. This is your only spoiler warning if such things concern you because of how I am now doing my notes. So again...NOVEL SPOILERS AHEAD. :)**


	2. Haunting Me

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Ghost Hunt belongs to Fuyumi Ono. I am just playing with her characters.

**

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Echoes: A Ghost Hunt fan fiction**

**Chapter Two: Haunting Me**

It felt like I was pulled into a place of almost solid darkness for a moment. This darkness had substance and a feeling to it that was highly unpleasant—similar to icy water, but a bit thicker and harder to move through. I struggled against it's subtly crushing weight in an effort to get out. How I knew where "out" was I don't know, but I did. Finally I popped through some unseen door into a place of gray mists.

I blinked and looked around feeling dizzy and confused. Something was very wrong but I couldn't remember what. This new place looked similar to where I went during _those _dreams, but it wasn't quite the same. Even as I thought that, the mist in front of me thinned and I found myself looking at the top of a building. Sun glinted off of metal on the roof. The building looked familiar, and I realized with a shock it was where the S.P.R. offices were located. I totally recognized the trees along the street and the stairs going to the second floor. The tables in the outdoor cafe looked very tiny from this perspective. Er...which meant I was floating high in the air or something.

Usually I was on the ground in my dreams. I wondered what would happen if I fell. Why in the world was I dreaming of the office? Suddenly the building loomed towards me, and I gasped as I fell _through _the roof in an instant and found myself in the familiar S.P.R. reception area. I was still seeing things from an odd angle near the ceiling.

My attention was immediately drawn to the ominously dark spirit near the front door. It was the clown I had seen earlier and he was laughing and floating in the air. His face now looked more like an actual skull than a painted one, but he still had the red ball nose. The clown had the darkest aura I had ever seen—worse even than the will-o-wisps from Yasuhara-san's high school. The clown's very presence made the office feel unclean. I stifled a scream as he looked in my direction and locked his eyes with mine. He had no whites or pupils...just solid black shining orbs.

"There you are, Yurie-chan," he whispered with a smile. Somehow I heard him clearly even though he was across the room. I tried to back away but the ceiling refused to yield this time.

Something white appeared in the air in front of me—between me and the clown. It resembled a glowing miniature Chinese style dragon more than anything else. Whatever it was, the creature radiated goodness and I was glad it was there. The dragon hissed at the clown and wrapped itself across my shoulders with it's tail loosely draped around my neck. I could feel it's tiny claws pricking me. For some reason it's slight weight was reassuring, and I felt protected.

The clown looked really pissed off to see the dragon. He was emitting a lot of black energy, and I wondered how long it would be before it overpowered the little glowing spirit. Would my feeble exorcising powers even touch something as strong as the clown appeared to be?

I heard a piercing whistle and another dragon spun out of the air and circled the clown. This one was red. It was followed by three more. One was black, one was bluish-green, and the last was yellow. All of the little dragons glowed and they obviously angered the clown. They dived at him hissing, and he scowled when they got too close. They seemed to be dancing a pattern in the air around the dark spirit. Where the dragons passed glowing blue lines were left in the air. The lines formed a cage of light that surrounded the clown.

Suddenly I could see Lin-san standing there in front of the clown. He was also glowing with the same blue light. He said something and the lines around the clown glowed brighter. The clown glared at me again—I could still see his face through a space between the bars of light—and then he laughed that awful laugh.

"_**They can't protect you forever little ghost. Your soul belongs to me."**_

I heard his words clearly even though he didn't open his mouth. I understood them even though they were in English. The clown clapped his hands together once and was suddenly gone. The cage of light abruptly contracted and disappeared as well.

The change in the office was as drastic as if someone had turned a spotlight on in a dark room. Instantly it felt different and normal again. I watched Lin-san glance sharply in the air where the clown had been. Then he raised his left arm in the air and the little dragons swarmed to him. The one around my neck chirped in my ear and I felt it lick my cheek, then it was moving to join the others.

The five dragons swirled in the air around his arm and blurred into balls of colored light. One by one they thinned and disappeared. The blue glow around Lin-san also faded until he looked like he always did. He turned and said something, and it was only then that I saw Naru.

My usually composed boss actually looked upset. I blinked and somehow drifted closer because it was such a surprise to see any expression on his face. He was kneeling on the floor and holding a thin pale girl with disheveled short brown hair. Her knees were bloody and one of her arms so bruised it was almost black. She was so limp in his arms that it almost looked like she was dead. Wait... The sudden realization of who that girl was shocked me.

_Is that really me? _

It was scary to see myself from a weird overhead angle. I really looked like crap. No wonder people had stared at me as I ran past them. No wonder I had felt so weird. I looked like the victim of some catastrophic event. It suddenly occurred to me that it wasn't good that I was seeing myself this way. Shouldn't I be inside my body?

_...Am I dead?_

Naru shifted my body in his arms and stood up. I watched as he carried me over to the couch and laid me down. He was saying something to Lin-san over his shoulder. The me that was floating in the air shook a bit in fear. I had no idea how to get back where I belonged. My body looked distant and empty—like it didn't belong to me anymore.

"_...Mai."_

I jumped when the soft voice said my name and turned in a complete circle looking for the source. It was Naru's voice, but it wasn't him. Naru was standing near the couch and looked like he was having an argument with Lin-san.

"_Calm down. Close your eyes and will yourself to wake up. You can do it."_

I couldn't see the person who was talking to me, but I felt his comforting presence. He was someone I knew and cared for. I trusted him enough to follow his advice without another thought. I drifted closer and touched my body's pale face with an insubstantial hand and then closed my eyes. I felt someone touch my shoulder and give me a gentle push. There was a moment of disorientation, and then I felt a sharp physical jerk and a definite impact as I slammed back into my body.

Pain was the first thing I noticed. I felt very heavy and tired, and my entire body seemed to ache. My arm throbbed in time with my heart and my knees stung. My head hurt and I felt sick. It even hurt to breathe. Lin-san and Naru were still arguing about something and their voices sounded unnaturally loud. I turned my head to one side and must have made a sound because suddenly I had their attention.

"Mai!"

I winced because Naru's voice seemed to echo in my head.

"Don't yell at me," I mumbled crossly and lifted my right arm over my eyes. Gah. I felt terrible. It had been much more comfortable to be a spirit.

"Idiot. I'm not yelling. Wake up."

I moved my arm and glared into his stormy blue eyes. He looked angry. I thought he probably would have shaken me if I'd ignored him like I wanted to. Something about his eyes hinted at barely controlled violence. That startled me because it was so completely unlike him. I had never seen him look like that.

"Are you all right?" I blurted out because I was suddenly worried.

Naru blinked and for a moment I thought he was going to yell. He stared at me and then abruptly stalked out of the room. I watched him go and wondered what his problem was. Why was he so mad at me?

"I think the more important question is if you are all right, Taniyama-san," Lin-san said. For some reason he sounded slightly amused. I looked at him and shrugged. I was about as all right as I could be under the circumstances.

Lin-san is very tall. That is the first thing I ever noticed about him. He is older than Naru and I by about ten years and is officially working as Naru's technical assistant. That means he is in charge of monitoring and maintaining all the electronic equipment we use to hunt ghosts. He is also in Japan because Naru's parents aren't crazy enough to let their teenage son loose in a foreign country without a keeper. Lin-san has never phrased it like that, but I am smart enough to read between the lines.

He is very stoic and never says much to me—partly because he is from China and doesn't like Japanese people. For a long time I thought he also personally disliked me, and I was a little scared of him—but we get along better now. I can't say we ever chat, but we do share companionable silences from time to time.

Lin-san always dresses very professionally in dark suits and white shirts and occasionally brightly colored ties. He has short black hair that he wears in a strange style with long bangs that always cover one of his eyes. I know that sounds weird, but it looks good on him. He is actually hot in an unknown-man-of-mystery-secret-agent kind of way.

In addition to his technical expertise, Lin-san is also a sorcerer. He is probably an Onmyouji or a Taoist, but has never seen fit to confirm or deny which one he might be. Whichever it is, he has a real talent for breaking curses. He also has five shikigami—familiar spirits—that he controls. In the past I had only seen brief glimpses of his shiki—mainly as glowing lights and once as a clawed arm. Now though...I wondered if I had seen their true forms.

He was currently showing his sorcerer side and putting charm papers on the walls of the reception area. I had only seen him do that to secure a safe space somewhere we were investigating. It was disturbing to see it done in the otherwise normal office.

I wearily pulled myself into a seated position on the couch. It was much harder than it should have been, but I didn't like how vulnerable I felt laying down. Why was I so tired? I felt odd, like everything was at a slight distance, and wondered if that meant I was in shock. I closed my eyes and huddled in the corner formed by the arm and back of the couch. It felt good just to lean there. What had I seen in my...dream?...out of body experience? I wasn't sure what that had been. The memories of it were slightly fuzzy but I distinctly remembered glowing dragons.

"Lin-san," I said tentatively. I wasn't sure if this was a question he would actually answer. "Your shiki...are they dragons?"

He stopped what he was doing and raised an eyebrow at me. That was as much surprise as I'd ever seen him show. "Sometimes. Why do you ask?"

"I think I saw them...just now..." My voice trailed off again as I thought about what else I had seen.

Why the hell was I being targeted by a psycho clown ghost that hadn't even been a ghost the first time I met him? Had he been hit by a bus or something right after I ran away? I couldn't help shivering at the memory. Normally I would have curled my knees up and hugged them, but my left arm was barely movable. Dammit. Why did crap like this always happen to me? There was an almost solid lump in my chest that told me tears were imminent. I hated it when I broke down, even if it was warranted. I didn't want to cry here.

Naru came back into the room and he was carrying a cup of tea carefully balanced on a saucer. To my surprise he handed it to me—just like he had that other time.

"Drink it."

He sat down in his usual chair, which was positioned near my end of the couch at the head of the small coffee table. His face was once again in it's normal expressionless mask, but his eyes still looked troubled. I blinked and then did as he told me. A nicer person would have asked instead of ordered, and a part of me wanted to tell Naru his people skills really sucked, but I supposed this probably was his version of being nice.

The tea really did make me feel better. Funny that he could make such good tea and yet never did, instead insisting _I _make_ him _tea. The warmth was comforting and the caffeine seemed to lend me some much needed energy. Best of all it pushed that lump of tears away. Naru and Lin-san were both watching me, but I ignored them and tried to enjoy my tea. My hands were shaking and I spilled more of it into the saucer than I wanted to. Neither said anything until I finished the cup and set it on the table.

"Taniyama-san, can you tell us what happened?" Lin-san immediately said. For some reason that earned him a glare from Naru.

"Yes," I said, to them both, but I was looking at Lin-san who was sitting across from me in another chair.

And so I told them—haltingly in parts—about the terrible day and how I had encountered the clown. Both men frowned as my story progressed and I wondered if it sounded too fantastic. I had absolutely no explanation for how a solid human weirdo had turned into some sort of evil spirit and followed me into the office. My vision of dragons in the office seemed too strange to add—it was probably just my imagination—so I left it out.

"You said there was a festival of sorts near the station?" Naru asked me after I stopped talking.

I nodded in confirmation and he shot some sort of glance at Lin-san that I couldn't interpret.

"It's possible," Lin-san replied—obviously he understood what the glance meant.

Naru frowned and raised one eyebrow. "A tagging spell as well?"

"That would explain how it got through my wards."

I looked between them and felt left out. They were so annoying when they had weird semi-verbal conversations. It was especially irritating when they ignored me at the same time.

"Mind telling_ me_ what is possible and what a tagging spell might be?" I snapped and glared at them both.

I would have crossed my arms to emphasize my point, but my left arm hurt too much when I tried to move it. It freaked me out when I glanced down and saw the hand prints, so I cradled it against my chest with my other arm and decided not to look at it again.

"No," Naru said without missing a beat. He then had the nerve to smirk at me.

"Why not?" I ground out.

Lin-san took this opportunity to get up and leave the room. I heard him making phone calls in the background, but didn't notice what he said. All my attention was directed at my annoying boss.

"You wouldn't understand," Naru said and shrugged.

"...Really. Why don't you explain it to me then?" My voice was laced with more sarcasm than his for once.

"It's hard to dumb things down to your level."

I was suddenly so angry that all I could do was sputter. Jerk! How could he still treat me like this when he knew how bad my day had been? Did he have any compassion at all? I wanted to leap across the table and slap him, but my arm was hurting too much. Plus such an action towards my boss—even if he deserved it—was probably a bad idea.

Instead of throwing out another rude comment, which is what I expected him to do, Naru looked past me and stared towards the front door where the clown spirit had tried to manifest. His eyes had an inward look that told me he was only half paying attention to our little verbal sparring match. Geez. I wondered if he had just insulted me on automatic pilot or something.

He sighed and ran one hand through his black hair which had the effect of making it look artfully tousled. Some people spent hours trying to get that look and his hair just did it naturally. His eyes had changed to a grayish-blue color that really stood out because he had such long inky lashes. Models would kill for eyes like that. It really wasn't fair that he was so good looking—it was too hard for me to stay mad. I was surprised when he glanced at me and caught me watching him. Our eyes locked for a moment and then I looked away. My cheeks felt hot and I knew I was blushing. How embarrassing to be caught gazing at him like a lovesick fool only a minute after he had just told me I was stupid. In some ways I really am an idiot.

I heard him sigh again. "Mai...as soon as Matsuzaki-san gets here, she and Lin are taking you to a hospital."

I looked at him in surprise, my humiliation forgotten.

"I think you might need both of them for protection," Naru continued and frowned. "I want to do some research before I worry you with things that are currently just suppositions."

Wait. Was he actually concerned...about _me_? He didn't want to worry me? Since when?

"I would feel better if you just told me now," I said. "I have already been attacked by it. Nothing you tell me could scare me much more than I already am."

Naru stared at me and I did my best to fearlessly meet his intense gaze. Finally he sighed and looked away.

"Lin has the office warded so it should be impossible for any spirit to enter. This one broke through his wards and it took all his shiki to banish it."

"It...wasn't banished," I whispered as I remembered the clown laughing at me. "It chose to leave."

"What?"

"She's right," Lin-san said.

I wondered when he had reentered the room. He was looking at me intently.

"Taniyama-san, where were you when you saw my shiki?"

Naru shot him a sharp glance and then looked at me with one eyebrow raised inquiringly. Ah hell. I wished I had never mentioned it. There was no way they were going to believe this... Maybe I could pretend to faint or something and avoid this conversation.

"Mai." Naru sounded like he was getting mad again.

I sighed and told them the rest of it—even pointing out the corner where I had been floating near the ceiling. I felt like a complete idiot when I mentioned not being able to get back in my body. I left out the part about being helped though. Naru was a bit touchy when it came to me mentioning _that_ person. Not that I blamed him.

Both of them looked disturbed by the time I finished.

"If it can force astral travel, then we are definitely not dealing with a mere spirit," Lin-san said to Naru.

My boss nodded in agreement and I didn't like the closed expression on his face. "Lin...what sort of spirit claims souls?" he finally asked. It sounded more like he was searching for confirmation than actually asking for an answer.

Lin-san frowned and glanced at me as if he were debating replying in my presence. I glared at him in response. Dammit. It had attacked _me_. I deserved to know what the hell it was.

"A demon," he said, with a finality that sent a shiver down my spine.

* * *

**8/14/08 EDIT: **I decided to move all author notes to the end of each chapter for aesthetic reasons.I have gone back through and tidied up slightly. Nothing major changed. There were just a few awkward sentences with redundant words that I cleaned up. I also looked up some grammar rules and adjusted a few commas etc.

**A.N.: **Wow...thanks so much to everyone who reviewed. I was really surprised. Hopefully I will be able to keep it interesting. This chapter features Lin-san because he is just cool. Special thanks to NobleBrokenBeauty for giving me a heads up on my consistent incorrect use of quotes. Hopefully it is fixed now.


	3. Enter Sandman

Ghost Hunt belongs to Fuyumi Ono. I am just playing with her characters.

* * *

**Echoes: A Ghost Hunt fan fiction**

**Chapter Three: Enter Sandman**

_"We must be careful...the demon is well protected."_

_"...We are prepared for that. She managed to come back from the dead...it isn't too shocking that she has expanded her darkness to include sorcerers."_

_"...We were almost captured by nasty shikigami..."_

_"But we weren't. We were smart enough to get away. Don't worry. We killed her once, we will do it again..."_

_"...And then the evil will be sealed?"_

_"...Yes...this time we will make sure she does not return..."_

_"That might mean eliminating all of her minions..."_

_"We are prepared."_

* * *

"A demon."

Lin-san's words seemed to echo in my head, and I wished I hadn't been quite so determined to know what they thought the clown was. As it turned out, I felt much worse hearing that.

_Ehehehe...that has to be a joke...right?_

The bell on the office door rang making me jump as two people entered. Lin-san and Naru merely turned their heads, while I was in full freak out mode and swung my entire body around on the couch. Not for the first time I envied their composure.

The newcomers were my coworkers, Matsuzaki Ayako and Takigawa Houshou. Normally I might have wondered aloud why they had arrived together, but I was too upset to tease anyone today. (I'm pretty convinced they either are dating or will end up doing so. It's sort of fun to tease them about it and watch their reactions. Yes, I have my evil moments too.)

Ayako is a tall—well tall compared to me—elegant woman in her mid-twenties with long red hair. I suspect she dyes it to get that bright color but it suits her. She dresses like a model and always has perfectly manicured nails—generally painted a bright shade of red. It is pretty obvious that she has a lot of money and has never had to work to pay the bills. Her "rich bitch" attitude gets very old at times—that's when I retaliate with comments about her "advanced" age. We bicker a lot, but actually get along well. Ayako is sort of a motherly figure towards everyone at S.P.R. She always makes sure we eat and is the one in charge of the giant first aid kit.

She works for S.P.R. on a contract basis as an exorcist because she is a "self proclaimed" miko. Her exorcisms aren't always successful—in fact it has become a running joke that they never work—except sometimes they _do. _When she has tree spirits to work with, the results are amazing. I suppose she really is a miko of some sort, even though she is not a priestess officially attached to any shrine. She also makes excellent defensive wards, which I'm sure is why she was called in today.

Bou-san is the name everyone at S.P.R. calls Takigawa. This is because he used to be a Buddhist monk at Mt. Koya. He is also employed on a contract basis to perform exorcisms for S.P.R. He is very powerful when it comes to defeating evil spirits and such. No one doubts his abilities as a monk, even though he doesn't look like one at all.

Bou-san is also tall, though not as tall as Lin-san, and he has light sandy colored hair. He used to wear his hair long but cut it about a year ago. Now he wears it in a shorter spiky style that gets really punky looking when he gels it for his "lives". He is a full time studio musician and plays bass in a band. His clothes are usually very casual—T-shirts, jeans, stuff like that.

He has a real fascination with paranormal research and tends to go all fanboy over famous psychics. Bou-san is also rather silly most of the time—sillier than you would expect someone in their late twenties to be—but I like that aspect of his personality. He is fun to be around. Bou-san is like a big brother to me and I'm always glad to see him.

Ayako made an odd face when she saw my arm. I guess I don't blame her for looking upset—it was upsetting me so much that I refused to look at it.

"Mai, are you sure you're ok?" she asked me frantically. She was lightly patting my head and shoulders at the time as if to make sure I wasn't broken.

"Ehh...I guess," I said in reply. Truthfully I was so _not _ok that I couldn't talk about it without crying. It was better to just avoid that topic all together.

She frowned at me. "What kind of answer is that?! Sheesh. You sound like Naru."

I smiled faintly. If only that were true. I'd be able to handle this better if I really were more like Naru. He probably ate demons for breakfast or something. Ha...

Bou-san immediately enveloped me in a warm hug, and I didn't care that it hurt my arm. I needed the comfort. His obvious concern broke through the slight numbness I had been shielding myself with, and the tears I had managed to fight back earlier escaped. I ended up sobbing messily into his T-shirt. Ayako was talking loudly with Lin-san and Naru, but I didn't notice what they were saying.

"Shh...it's all right, Mai."

It wasn't. Not at all. I appreciated his attempt to cheer me up though. I made an effort to stop crying and mostly succeeded though a few tears kept leaking out of my eyes.

"You are a terrible liar, Bou-san," I said finally with a sad attempt at a smile.

He frowned at me and ruffled my hair. "You doubt me, Little Girl? No one here is going to let anything happen to you."

I had no answer to that. It wasn't that I mistrusted his sincerity, or the sincerity of anyone else in the room, I was just horribly frightened by that 'D' word.

* * *

Naru called Bou-san away after I stopped clinging to him, and they went into Naru's office and shut the door. No doubt they were discussing things that pertained to me that, I of course, was too "delicate" to hear. I was angrily considering bashing the door open when Lin-san and Ayako ushered me outdoors and into the S.P.R. van. It was very hot outside and hot in the van too until the AC finally kicked in. Ayako talked to me the entire trip to the hospital. I didn't say much in reply because I was having trouble focusing on the conversation. Instead I stared blankly out the window at the late afternoon sunlight glinting off cars and buildings as we drove past.

Once we got there, it seemed to take forever to deal with things at the hospital. I had to answer lots of questions. The doctor seemed to think I was the victim of domestic violence. He obviously didn't believe my story of being randomly attacked by a clown. Ayako finally yelled at him and he stopped badgering me.

Nothing was broken in my arm; it was just severely bruised. A nurse disinfected the scratches and cuts—which stung horribly—and gave me some sort of ointment to put on the bruises. She also gave me a sling and told me I wouldn't have much use out of that arm for a few days. My knees were cleaned and bandaged up as well. I had a fairly large bump on the back of my head and they advised me to use an ice pack on it. Luckily I didn't have a concussion. Then a doctor gave me some medicine for the pain. I'm not sure what it was, but it _really_ messed with my head and gave the entire memory a surreal quality.

Someone—a police officer?—tried to ask me questions after that, but I was too out of it to focus. I think Lin-san and Ayako both argued with the doctor and my interrogator. The next thing I noticed clearly was the muggy air and being put back inside the S.P.R. van. I say put because I was carried and set into the seat. Lin-san also fastened my seat belt, and I was too groggy to even feel embarrassed. I vaguely noticed it was dark and wondered how long we had been in the hospital.

"...Can I please go home now?" I asked or tried to ask anyway. I think it might have come out more garbled.

"In a bit, Mai," Ayako said from somewhere in the back seat.

I remember a strange dark trip with blurring street lights and odd sounds. I think I must have been dozing off or I was never fully conscious at all. I kept losing big chunks of time. Lin-san and Ayako were discussing _me_—and I wanted to hear what they were saying, dammit—but all I caught were stray words. Eventually I was walked into a building and then an elevator. People were talking all around me, but it was all I could do to sort of stay upright, so I have no idea what was said. Finally there was a bed and I was allowed to lay down. It wasn't my bed, but I didn't care. To be somewhere safe enough to rest was the ultimate bliss, and I felt safe enough to snuggle into the pillow. I fell asleep before the person who had walked me there even finished pulling off my shoes.

* * *

A loud ringing noise, like the sound of a school bell, disturbed me and I opened my eyes. Around me people in unfamiliar school uniforms hurried to class. I was standing in a school corridor, but it was not a school I recognized. Something about the hair styles of my fellow students was odd and old fashioned. Not horribly out of date, but nothing at all like what my friends wore.

"Ai-chan," a girl with feathered hair and blue eye makeup said to me. "Hurry up or you'll be late for class. You don't want to disappoint Sensei, do you?" Then she winked and ran off giggling.

I followed her and somehow knew where I was going. Class 3-E was my destination. A short foreign girl was standing beside the door. She had blond hair pulled back in a ponytail and odd brown eyes. Something about those eyes was creepily familiar so I paused.

"Aiko-sempai, please meet me after school," she said in slightly accented Japanese.

"All right. The usual place?" I heard myself carelessly answer. Whoever I was at the moment—Ai? Aiko?—was impatient to get to class. She wanted to see her boyfriend much more than she wished to talk to _this _particular girl.

"Yes," the foreign girl said and smiled.

I thought there was something a bit odd about her smile. She was looking at me—well Ai/Aiko, I suppose—with a look in her eyes that I've always associated with men. Er...sort of lustful is what I'm getting at. Not that I've been looked at that way, but I did recognize it when I saw it. Seeing it coming from another girl was jarring. The odd thing is the girl who I was, she didn't notice it at all. She just breezed past into the classroom.

Abruptly the scene changed and I was outside under a tree. It was a giant cherry tree that still had a few blooms on it. Some pale white petals drifted off in the gusty wind. In the distance I could see a sports team practicing baseball while other people ran around a track. The shadows suggested it was late afternoon.

The foreign girl I had seen earlier was standing near me. She looked like she had been crying and I wondered why. Her blond shoulder length hair was loose about her neck and strands of it kept blowing across her face in the wind. I watched as she crushed something in her hand and turned to glare at me. Blood dripped from her clenched fist, and the droplets were caught by a gust and ended up splattering her legs and the front of her dark blue skirt. She must have cut herself badly. Her brown eyes looked crazy, and I took an instinctive step backwards. Even though she was tiny, she suddenly looked dangerous.

"I hate you!" she said and started crying again. "Hate you! hate you! hate you! hateyou hateyou hate hatehatehate..." She wiped her bloody hand across her face with each mumbled word, smearing her blood across it like a mask.

_Whoa._

I backed a bit farther away. The blond girl looked more than a little insane as she kept up her chant. Luckily those angry eyes were looking behind me rather than at me. I turned to see who had earned her wrath. A girl with waist length feathered brown hair was walking with a slightly older man through the school parking lot. I couldn't quite see their faces, but something about them seemed familiar.

I thought he was maybe a teacher because he wasn't wearing a uniform and looked too old to be a student. The girl looked like she was my age, so she was probably a third year student. Something about the way they were talking suggested there was more than a student-teacher relationship there. He stopped and pushed a strand of her long hair behind her ear in an intimate gesture that wasn't very professional at all. The girl clearly welcomed it though; she blushed and then kissed him. The pair walked to an old beat up looking red car holding hands. I'm not sure what the model was, but it was old—older than cars that are commonly driven today. The car drove off with both of them inside, which was odd. Teacher and student relationships are always frowned upon—not to mention _illegal_. How were these two bold enough to openly be together?

The foreign girl behind me started laughing as the car sped away and I froze at the sound. It was a high pitched giggle that I had heard before. I spun around, and she was on her knees madly laughing at nothing. There was no sign of the clown...but that laugh. It was the same.

The girl's blond hair hung over her face, obscuring it. Slowly she raised her head and looked directly at me. Bloody red hand prints covered most of her face. More streaks of red covered the front of her white shirt. Her eyes were solid black. I screamed and ran away from there—not wanting to see anything else. I stopped running only when I noticed the familiar balls of light floating about.

Crap. What was up with that creepy girl? I recognized the spiritual plane I was in, but I didn't feel safe here anymore—not after the clown spirit forced me out of my body earlier. No one directly told me that is what happened, but I'm not stupid. Lin-san and Naru wouldn't have been so concerned if that vision had been one of my "normal" dreams. Logically that meant I was probably in danger now because the spirit could find me in the astral planes.

_Ha! And Naru always complains that I never use my brain. _

Maybe I should try to find that school again. What if it held a clue to whatever had the de—clown after me? I looked around warily and sensed nothing evil nearby. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to calm myself. It _was_ possible to direct the dreams—just difficult. I didn't really want to go back to that girl, but if she had an answer for me, I had to.

"Stop."

Someone picked that exact moment to lay a hand on my shoulder. Normally my nerves aren't quite so bad, but it had been an exceptionally terrible day. I screamed and whirled around so quickly that I almost fell, totally expecting to see the clown. Instead I saw a familiar black haired boy dressed all in black. His blue eyes were faintly amused at my extreme reaction. Then he frowned at me and in that instant he looked _exactly _like Naru.

"It is dangerous here, Mai. You should go."

I stared at him a moment feeling confused. I hadn't seen him in a while, though I had heard him earlier that day. My heart leaped with happiness because I had missed him. I was also angry because I suspected he had been avoiding me—possibly because he felt awkward. But if I could get past the awkwardness of a confession with _both_ of them, surely he could get past it with me, dammit. We were friends after all. There was no way I was going to let him vanish again...er unless it was because he actually managed to move on and I had to.

"Gene," I said his name and smiled. "Thank you for earlier..."

"Ah well, that idiot would never survive if something happened..." he said cryptically.

I blinked, not sure what he meant by that. He smiled at me and shook his head before I could ask what he was talking about. When he smiled, it looked like Naru had smiled, and the effect was surprising like always.

"Not my secret to tell. Now be a good girl and wake up."

I frowned at him.

"Only if you stop avoiding me. I worry when you just disappear like that." I looked down for a moment. "I'm sorry if I upset you..."

"Mai..."

"Promise. Otherwise I'm just going to stay here and take my chances," I continued stubbornly and crossed my arms.

He looked at me and I had no more luck reading his eyes than I ever had with his twin's.

"You didn't upset me. I was trying to stay out of the way."

"Out of the way of what?"

Gene shook his head and didn't answer me. Instead he smiled his beautiful smile which still made my heart skip a beat. Involuntarily I smiled back, feeling a bit dazzled.

"I promise," he said. "Now go before it finds you. I can't tell you anything yet. Except...don't sleep again without wearing wards. It's not safe."

I felt a subtle push even though he didn't touch me. The next thing I knew, I was blinking my eyes and waking up in a room that wasn't mine. My arm almost immediately started hurting and my thoughts felt slightly foggy. Ugh. When was I going to wake up and not feel terrible?

It was dark but I could still tell I had never seen this room before. It was very...minimal...when it came to decoration. The walls were painted white or some other pale color and they were bare of pictures or any other sort of ornamentation. That made the small ward papers pasted on each wall stand out especially well. There were two windows—one on the wall beside the bed, and one on the wall closest to the foot of the bed—and both were covered with dark colored fabric curtains that went almost from the ceiling to the floor. I wondered if the windows were really that big, or if it was just for décor purposes. The bed seemed to be covered in the same fabric as the curtains. Other than the bed, the furniture consisted of a chest of drawers near what was probably a closet door, a small table nestled between the bed and the closest wall, and a comfy looking arm chair in the corner by the window. The bedside table held a small digital clock that read three thirty a.m. in glowing blue numbers.

I sat up slowly because I was dizzy and my left arm was not cooperating. It's harder than you might think to do simple things with just one arm. The room spun for a moment and then settled down. Whatever drug they had given me must still be in effect; I could feel sleep calling me so strongly that it was hard to keep my eyes open. Gene's warning echoed in my head though. I needed to get a personal ward before I dared sleep again. The ones on the wall were apparently not enough.

I didn't know where I was but supposed it must be one of my coworker's houses. I felt safe, and no one else I knew would bother to ward a room for me. If I just looked, I could probably find someone nearby who could make me an additional ward. Otherwise I was going to need coffee or something to stay awake.

Getting out of bed was more difficult than I thought it would be. The room tilted again as my feet touched the floor and I ended up in a heap on the carpet. Fortunately I didn't fall that hard or make a lot of noise—mainly my abused knees stung from the impact. It was really annoying though. I was able to observe up close that the carpet was that generic light beige color that comes standard in most apartments. I also noticed that I was in entirely different clothes than I remembered wearing.

_Eh?!_

I was now wearing my favorite pajamas—pale purple with goth Hello Kitty and the words "bad kitty" printed all over them—the ones I _never _wore on a case because I didn't want to be made fun of. They were modest enough, being baggy pants and a clingy long sleeved top with a giant Gothic Lolita Hello Kitty on the front, but I felt odd knowing someone had undressed me while I slept. I really really hoped it had been Ayako. Scratch that, it had better have been Ayako, or I was going to hurt whomever did it.

Using the bed as a brace, I was able to stand up. I swayed a moment and then managed to stagger over to the door. It opened onto a hallway that was dimly lit from some room up ahead. There were a few doors in the hallway and then it appeared to turn. The door closest to me was open and that proved to be a bathroom, which I was grateful to find.

The bathroom had white tile on the walls with a thin line of dark blue tile about two thirds of the way up the wall. The floor was sort of generic white and beige tile with a few squares of dark blue. There was a plain dark blue shower curtain and dark blue fluffy towels that matched the tile on the wall and floor. The room was very clean, but didn't look like it was used much. There was an almost untouched bar of soap next to the white sink and a perfect tube of toothpaste that was obviously new. There was no cluttering of shampoos and lotions and makeup like I had in my own bathroom. This room, like the bare room I had awoken in, seemed to be a guest room.

My face looked pale and thin in the mirror above the sink and there were dark circles around my eyes. I splashed water on my face in the hopes that it would help wake me up. It didn't have that effect, but some of the water did help tame my hair which was sticking up at all angles. I frowned at my reflection and poked my tongue out. I hated looking so unlike myself.

I turned off the light and slipped back into the hallway. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, and I was content to lean against the wall and rest. I was so tired that I had to remind myself not to fall asleep. The door to "my" room was open, but the remaining doors in the hallway were not. I didn't really want to go randomly opening doors in someone else's house in the middle of the night. There was a light coming from somewhere around the corner at the end of the hall, and I decided to go that way. If anyone was still awake, they would probably be wherever the light was.

Walking down the hallway was accomplished with much leaning on the wall. Fortunately there were no pictures for me to knock off. Whoever lived here didn't waste much time decorating. Past the corner, the hallway opened into a large dimly lit room.

The far wall of the room was a giant window and I stopped in the doorway struck by the sight. Actually it was probably lots of smaller windows all together, but the effect was of a wall of glass. I could see the lights of Tokyo's skyline clearly because there were no curtains to obscure the view. Even at this hour of the morning, there were beautiful colored lights everywhere and it looked oddly peaceful, like a painting. The other walls needed no pictures with that window as the focus of the room. Normal people didn't get to see views like that. They couldn't pay the rent.

The rest of the room was ordinary compared to the window. It held a couch and two chairs all arranged around a small coffee table. The couch and chairs looked like they were made of dark colored leather—probably black. They were positioned so that the window could be easily seen from all possible seats. There was a teacup and saucer on the table next to what looked like a video camera. The camera was in pieces and had some tools scattered near it as if it were in the middle of being repaired. Someone was asleep on the couch. Long hair peeped out from under a blanket that was drawn up to shield the sleeper's face from the faint light. I thought it was probably Ayako—the lump of blankets looked too slender to be one of the men.

One entire wall of the room was covered with bookshelves. I couldn't help smiling when I saw them. Of course there would be books instead of a TV, and I didn't even have to read the titles to guess what they were about. There was another shelf along the small part of actual wall near the giant window. That shelf held miscellaneous electronic equipment—more cameras (regular and night vision), some monitors (mostly flat screen), a couple of beta VTRs (the new ones that had been equipped with P2 card readers), and what looked like the hard yellow plastic case we kept the thermal imager from work in. That small piece of equipment was so staggeringly expensive—even by Naru's standards—that he didn't keep it at the office and preferred that only Lin-san or himself use it. (Which sucked because it was really cool to play with...not that Bou-san and I had ever borrowed it or anything. Heh.) Seeing the thermal imager just confirmed my suspicion of whose house, or rather apartment, I was in.

The light in the room came from the window and an open doorway along the remaining wall. I slowly made my way—by holding the walls when possible—to the door to see if anyone was awake in the other room. I didn't want to wake Ayako if I didn't have to. My arm was hurting me more as I walked, and the odd disorientation was not getting better. I had to stop once or I would have fallen when the entire floor seemed to flip on me. Other than that, I just felt really tired and wondered what the hell they had given me to cause such bizarre effects.

The room with the light on was a kitchen. It was a much more cheerful kitchen that I expected to find here—being mostly yellow. The floor was yellow and white tile and the walls were painted a soft shade of pale yellow. The counter tops and appliances were white. There was a small table and four chairs set off to the side in a sort of alcove built with a multi-angled window wall. The window wall had sheer white curtains hanging across each of it's five panes. There was a single light turned on over the table, and it clearly illuminated a black haired figure seated there reading a book.

Naru was dressed more casually than I was used to seeing him—he was wearing a black T-shirt and jeans—and his feet were bare. I supposed it made perfect sense that he would dress differently at home, I knew I did; it still surprised me though. His hair was very messy—I always describe it as messy, but that is because strands of it are usually in his eyes—this was different. It was sticking up in the back like he'd slept weird and looked cute and funny at the same time. I had to suppress the urge to laugh at him while smoothing it down.

_Mustn't pet the boss. Bad Mai._

He turned his head sharply as I entered the room, even though I didn't make any noise. A look of surprise crossed his face.

"Mai...why are you up?"

"Why are you?" I said in reply.

"I'm working."

Good God. He was a hopeless workaholic. I couldn't help rolling my eyes in exasperation. "It's almost four a.m. You should sleep."

I added that last bit because he looked tired, and I knew he had a bad habit of living on something terrible like two hours of sleep while on a case. He often ended up looking almost sick and paler than usual by the time difficult cases ended—part of that had to be caused by pushing himself too hard.

Naru sighed and closed his book. "You didn't come all the way in here just to tell me that, did you?"

"No." I stumbled to the refrigerator and leaned against it to catch my balance because I was feeling dizzy. "I had a dream and a warning that I shouldn't sleep without additional wards."

"A warning?"

"I need personal wards...or something like that..." My voice trailed off because the floor was doing it's weird flippy thing again, and I had to concentrate on staying upright.

"Idiot. Sit!"

As he spoke, he carefully took my uninjured arm and directed me over to a chair. I didn't argue and sat down. I wanted to say something snippy in reply because it pissed me off to be talked to like a dog, but I did need to sit. It was that or fall on my face. I leaned my right elbow on the table and tiredly rested my forehead in my hand. My left arm just sort of hung useless in my lap—it hurt too much to move it. The table moved slightly as Naru sat across from me. I supposed I was about to get another lecture from him.

"...Who told you about the wards?" he asked instead.

"Gene. He told me it wasn't safe to sleep."

He was silent a moment and I sneaked a glance at him. His eyes were staring into space and he was idly tapping the table with one hand in the way he always did when deep in thought. Naru suddenly glanced at me and I felt almost pinned by his blue gaze.

"It's dangerous...and yet he took you somewhere for a vision before bothering to tell you about the wards?"

"Eh? No...I don't think he had anything to do with my dream," I said surprised. It didn't take very long for me to tell what I had seen. Describing the black eyed girl raised goosebumps on my arms. She had really disturbed me.

Naru seemed to agree. "The foreign girl sounds suspicious," he said after I finished. "The rest doesn't seem to have any connection to you. Any idea why the couple looked familiar?"

I shook my head. "No. It was very weird. I...I might be just so doped up that it wasn't a real dream after all," I reluctantly admitted. It felt real to me, and I was almost certain it had been one of my clairvoyant dreams, but I was also undeniably not my usual self at the moment.

Naru glanced away from me and looked annoyed. "The so called 'doctors' gave you some sort of anti-psychotic drug by _mistake_ at the hospital. I'm not sure if that has adversely affected your ESP or not. It should wear off within a few more hours."

"What?!" So _that_ was what was wrong with me...

"You were really messed up when Lin and Matsuzaki-san brought you here. Stumbling around like a drunk is actually a big improvement."

"I am _not_ stumbling around like a drunk!"

"Yelling like one too," he added with a smirk.

I felt my cheeks heating up in a blush and shot him the meanest glare I could manage. Dammit. It was his fault for pissing me off so much that I yelled at him.

"Anyway, you should get more rest," Naru said and stood up. "You look terrible."

My feelings were hurt by that—even if it was true—and I opened my mouth to tell him he was a jerk. He surprised me by taking my right hand and gently pulling me to my feet. Then he kept hold of my arm like he fully intended to help me back to the room I was staying in. I stared at him in shock and had to consciously shut my mouth. It really wasn't fair that he was being nice when I couldn't think straight. Naru looked back at me and raised one eyebrow. His blue eyes looked amused.

"Unless you prefer to stay in the kitchen all night?"

"Er...no," I muttered and looked down. I felt tired and horribly confused. It was humiliating to have to depend on him to help me walk—especially when I was angry. At the same time, I enjoyed the excuse to be close to him. I couldn't help it. Without another word he led me out of the room. It took much less time to get back to "my" room with Naru's help than it had for me to get to the kitchen on my own.

I ended up sitting on the bed and feeling really awkward. I felt odd about being alone in a dark bedroom with a guy I was so attracted to. It was just...weird. Nothing ever seems to bother Naru though, and he acted like it was an ordinary occurrence for him to have to help a girl into his spare bedroom in the middle of the night. If it _was_ normal for him, I didn't want to know.

"I'll go get another ward from, Matsuzaki-san," he said and walked out the door.

I closed my eyes and sternly told myself to stop being an idiot. It wasn't any of my business at all what my _boss_ did in his personal life. I pulled my legs under the covers and leaned against the headboard—not wanting to lay down because that would just make things weird again when he came back. I hoped he returned soon. I was really tired.

"Mai."

I was surprised he was already back. Ayako was usually hard to wake up and she always complained loudly. I hadn't heard a thing. I opened my eyes and was startled to see Naru standing right beside the bed. He looked like a solid black shadow in the dark room and scared me for a second. He handed me a charm paper.

"She said you need to make sure the seal touches your skin."

"Seal?" It looked weird—like no charm I had ever seen. Maybe that was why it needed special treatment. What was the seal though?

He sighed. "That round part there. Idiot."

I rolled my eyes. "You don't have to be a jerk," I muttered. It looked like it would bend, so I could probably tie it around my wrist and not have to worry about losing it.

Suddenly there was a loud banging on the door that made me jump. Wait a minute...when had the door been shut?

"Hurry Mai," Naru said. I noticed he didn't seem to care that something was banging on the door. He sat on the bed next to me and I turned my attention back to him feeling very confused.

"Er...Is that...?"

Naru grabbed my left wrist and I hissed because it hurt. I stared at him as he snatched the charm paper out of my other hand. What was his problem? The banging was even louder, as if the door was about to be kicked in.

"Hey! You are hurting me."

He smiled and placed the seal against my left arm over one of the bruises. It felt icy cold—so cold that it burned my skin. That isn't what chilled my blood though. His eyes were wrong. Whoever was in the room with me—it wasn't Naru.

* * *

**8/14/08 EDIT:**I decided to move all my author notes to the end of each chapter for aesthetic reasons.

This chapter had several revisions done--mainly because it is just so long. I don't have a beta and missed things the first time around. There were a few awkward sentences with redundant words that I cleaned up. Apparently "snuck" isn't considered a word except in"rural parts of the US". Granted I am from Texas, but I'm not a hick--so I changed it to the recommended form of "sneaked". I also looked up some grammar rules and adjusted a few commas etc. I added a tiny bit to some room descriptions to clarify where the furniture is. I changed bedside table to bed where Mai needs help standing up after realizing the bedside table is on the other side of the bed...doh! I also slightly expanded the conversation between Mai & Naru in the kitchen. I never liked the sentence where she was telling him her dream, so I tweaked that part. **Despite all this, nothing major changed. The plot is the same, my inner micro-manager is just happier.**

**A.N.:** Sorry for the wait between updates. Work has kept me busy. Hopefully this extra long chapter will make up for it.

Again thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to review. I really appreciate it. I'm doing my best to become a better writer, and your opinions and advice help. LOL- I need all the grammar advice I can get...being very rusty in some areas.

I know it's a bit long...I just couldn't find a good place to break it. I _really _hope it isn't too descriptive or dull.

**Ti30 Thermal Imager**– google that if you want to know what one looks like. It really does cost 12,000 dollars and really is cool to play with. I met some ghost hunters at work that actually use one. ;) Watching monitors and waiting for a ghost to show up is actually kind of dull though...poor Lin.


	4. I Just Died In Your Arms

* * *

Ghost Hunt belongs to Fuyumi Ono. I am just playing with her characters.

* * *

**Echoes: A Ghost Hunt fan fiction**

**Chapter Four: (I Just) Died in Your Arms**

I heard myself take a shocked sounding breath as I stared into his eyes. I was too startled to do anything else. Those blue eyes I had often admired sparkled with the desire to hurt me. This person looked exactly like Naru—down to the sleep mussed hair and clothes—but whoever looked out of those blue eyes wasn't him. Not even close. Naru's eyes were always too shuttered to show more than a hint of any emotion—good or bad—even this afternoon when he'd been upset they hadn't looked so..._open_. This "Naru's" eyes gleamed with dark emotions I have never seen reflected in my cold boss' eyes. I'm not even sure what all the emotions were, but they made me very uncomfortable.

I trust Naru. Even when he is being an utter ass—which is more often than not—I know he isn't going to ever deliberately hurt me. It just isn't in his nature to do so. I actually _like_ his annoying personality—though there is no way in hell I will ever admit that. (I might be an idiot, but I'm not an overly masochistic idiot.) It was freaky to see such an oddly malicious look on his usually expressionless face.

"W-who...who are you?" I stammered in surprise.

Considering what had been happening to me, I suppose I should have immediately known who the impostor was. My mind was working sluggishly though. I was so tired that it was hard to think, and the seal—or whatever it was—he had pressed against my arm was making me feel cold and vaguely sick. My left arm was so cold it was starting to go numb.

He raised one eyebrow in a gesture that perfectly mimicked my boss. "You know who I am."

"No." I shook my head in denial. "I don't. You aren't him."

He laughed and it definitely wasn't Naru's laugh. The sound had a familiar edge to it because it was Naru's voice, but I had never heard him laugh so heartily. Echoes of the clown's shrill giggle bubbled throughout and were easily recognizable despite the deeper tone. It totally creeped me out watching "Naru" laugh like that. I flinched and tried to pull my arm away, but his grip on my injured wrist was too strong. He suddenly raised his other hand and caressed my cheek. His hand was as cold as if he'd been handling snow.

"Does it matter? We thought you would prefer this shape."

_Eh...?_

His hand slid down my face and lingered near my mouth, and I was too startled to react. What was he doing? He started tracing my bottom lip with his thumb, and that scared the hell out of me. This was _so_ not what I wanted to have happening right now. I didn't like the dark look in his eyes _at all_.

I slapped his hand away. "Stop it!" Part of my brain finally caught up and registered just _how_ this person could hurt me. I didn't think I could handle it if...

_...Don't panic...don't panic..._

"G-get away from me."

I backed away as far as I could, which wasn't that far because I was already leaning against the headboard of the bed. Judging from the satisfied smirk on his face—which copied Naru's expression _exactly _when he was teasing me—the impostor knew what I was thinking and was highly amused by my fear. Had Naru been possessed? This "Naru's" eyes were oddly cold and evil looking and I wanted to get far away from him.

"Now why would I want to do that?" he purred. "We are going to have fun sending you back to hell...Yurei-chan."

Ice ran down my spine when I heard that name again. I screamed and tried to get away, but there was no place to go. My legs were pinned down by the covers of the bed which he was sitting on, and he was still holding my left wrist. Oh my God. I was trapped with the de—clown—whatever-the-hell-it-was, and the way he was looking at me... I had seen that sort of look before in my dream. It didn't matter if it was my boss possessed by the clown, or if it was some entirely new form for the evil spirit. I did _not_ want to get up close and personal with it.

_...No...no...no...hell no..._

I had to get away from him. I am not as strong as my coworkers, but I am not defenseless either. Bou-san and Ayako have both taught me ways to defend against evil spirits.

Bou-san has also lectured me thoroughly about never using the kuji-kiri—the nine words and their corresponding cuts—against a person. I'm not sure exactly how they work, but the nine words are essentially a way of channeling spiritual energy. They can be used for meditation, to protect oneself, or even to drive off evil spirits—it just depends what your intent is when using them. Ayako once told me she thought it didn't matter so much if the mantras weren't said exactly right, as long as the intent behind them was clear. I hoped that was true because I was too panicked to attempt the correct mental preparation.

Powerful people can seriously injure or even kill by using the kuji-kiri. My exorcising powers are weak, but I have still managed to bruise the nine words and their corresponding cuts into people's skin by accident. I hesitated to use them now because part of my mind was screaming that I couldn't or I would hurt Naru. Another glance at his eyes reasserted my common sense—whoever this was, he wasn't my boss. Luckily I still had one hand free and was able to make the correct horizontal and vertical slashes in the air as I said the kuji.

"Rin! Pyou! Tou! Sha! Kai! Jin! Retsu! Zai! Zen!"

The fake Naru looked surprised and tried to grab my hand before I finished, but he wasn't fast enough. I spoke the last syllable and the power I had managed to call hit him hard enough to knock him to the floor. He let go of my wrist as he fell, and the seal also peeled away from my arm and fell somewhere. I didn't see where exactly because I was scrambling over the opposite side of the bed to get as far away from him as possible. My back ended up pressed against the glass of the window. Unfortunately the door was on the other side of the room next to the fallen impostor.

I could hear pounding on the door again and realized that the sounds had vanished when the seal touched my skin. My left arm was completely numb and unmovable, and that worried me. What the hell had the "seal" been meant to do? A wave of dizziness suddenly rolled over me, and I almost fell as the floor seemed to move with it. I felt much sicker than I had before and couldn't tell if it was due to fear, or some effect of the seal, or even because of whatever drug I had been given at the hospital. Only clinging to the curtains with my good hand kept me standing.

This wasn't good. Even if I could get past him and reach the door, I didn't know if I would be able to run away. My legs were already trembling so much it was hard to stand. The stresses of the day had just been too much to deal with. Way too much. I knew I had passed my limit because all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and sleep. My coping skills are usually much better. They have to be in my line of work.

I flinched as the impostor sat up and glared at me. A thin line of blood trailed from his left temple down his cheek. I almost wanted to run to his side to see if he was okay because it looked like Naru was bleeding. He tilted his head to one side and grinned which killed that urge. Naru would never grin like that. His eyes...

_Oh crap..._

His eyes were now solid black.

"That...wasn't very nice, Taniyama-san."

He said it exactly as Naru would have with just the correct amount of irritated sarcasm. The impersonation was eerily accurate despite the demon eyes, and it was starting to piss me off.

"I-it wasn't nice to try and t-trick me either. Stay away...or I'll d-do it again."

I did my best to sound tough, but my voice shook. Even though I was angry, I was also scared and my knees felt like they were about to collapse. I was bluffing as hard as I could. It was doubtful that I would be able to focus my spiritual energy again—I was too dizzy and ill at the moment—hopefully it wasn't obvious though. Maybe I could distract him long enough for whoever was banging on the door to break into the room.

_...Please someone...please help me..._

"Go for it. Exorcising spells don't work when a demon uses them. I'm surprised you thought you could get away with that type of magic," he said with a sneer as he stood up.

"Eh?" I couldn't help blinking at that odd statement.

"Death has made you careless." He gestured towards the door which was visibly shaking in it's frame as something pounded the other side. "Though your minions are formidable."

"...M-minions? Wha—?"

My question was cut off by a startled squeak because he was suddenly right in front of me. Somehow he moved across the room and through or around the bed, and I didn't see him do it. One moment he was standing by the door; I blinked and he was in my face. His hands were on either side of my head—trapping me against the window—and he was leaning down so I could feel his cold breath on my skin. Any faint doubts I might have had about him being a possessed human vanished because he radiated cold like he was made of ice. The blood that had been running down his face had frozen in a thin red line before it reached his jaw. No one could be that cold and still live. I shivered because he still looked so much like Naru—except for the solid black eyes. It was indescribably _wrong _to see Naru impersonated by this..._thing_.

"They won't be enough," he continued conversationally. "Did you forget that your soul is spoken for?"

"I have no idea what y-you mean," I whispered, staring up at those black eyes. He was way too close to me. I was so cold—I couldn't think. It was like my mind was slowly freezing along with my arm.

He smirked at me, and it echoed my boss so closely that a part of me wanted to react to him the same way I would have towards Naru. Except such a situation would never have come up between me and my disinterested boss. My heart was racing...but _not_ in a good way. The extra adrenaline helped clear my head a little and left room for me to be highly alarmed by his actions.

"Let me remind you then," he murmured.

He bent his head like he was going to kiss me. I felt my eyes widen and then I turned my head sharply to the right in an effort to avoid him. What the hell?!

"No!" I said and pushed against him with my right hand. It felt like I was touching something frozen and long dead. "Get away from me!"

He whispered something to me in English that I didn't understand. I had no idea if he was still mimicking my boss or not when he said it because I refused to look. His breath was icy in my ear and along the side of my neck, and it caused me to shiver uncontrollably. I hated that part of me was weak enough to enjoy the sensation despite the circumstances—_I knew it wasn't really Naru_—and did my best to ignore it.

"No, no lady. We can't have you pretending to be shy," he said in a singsong tone that made goosebumps appear on my skin. It was no longer Naru's voice.

I stiffened as one of his hands moved and grabbed my chin. His fingers were so cold that my face burned and then started going numb from the touch. He was much stronger than me and forced me to face him. I couldn't quite stifle a scream at his new appearance. The man who held me trapped against the window no longer resembled my boss—though he was still wearing black clothes. This person was much shorter—barely taller than me—so I was eye to eye with those solid black eyes. His face was painted white. Black and gray circles around his eyes and black lines painted around his mouth made his face resemble a skull. His nose was covered by a red rubber ball. He was missing the blue wig—instead very short blondish gray hair covered his head. I recognized him instantly as the clown that had attacked me.

"I told you I would have your soul, Yurei-chan," he said with a sinister smile. His voice once again had that odd dual quality of high and low at the same time.

I jerked backward in reflex, but it didn't accomplish anything because I was already pressed against the window. I ended up banging the back of my head sharply against the glass. The bruise there from earlier flared with pain and then started throbbing in time with the rapid beating of my heart.

"W-why?" I said. It was hard to talk because he still held my chin and my lips were numb from the cold. "I don't understand..."

"False modesty ill becomes you. Have you really forgotten..."—the hand on my chin slipped down across my neck and then started going lower in what I think was probably meant to be a caress—"..._Everything_ we were to each other?"

I batted his wandering hand away. It was harder to do than it should have been because my right arm was also growing numb. Why was I so cold?

"Er...You are m-mistaken. I-I don't know you."

"Liar! Though demons always lie, don't they?" he continued nastily.

_Demon? _

"Why do you keep calling me that?" I honestly wanted to know. Wasn't _he_ the one who was supposed to be a demon?!

Whatever he was, my question pissed the clown off. His real mouth grimaced under the makeup and both his hands went around my neck. The iciness of his fingers bruised me and cut off my air. I tried to flail at him with my right arm but it was now almost as numb and useless as the left. I saw my death reflected in his eyes and had time to wonder how things had come to this point—that I was being strangled by a ghost clown. What a stupid fate...

Over his shoulder, I dimly saw the door burst open. It looked like it was blown off its hinges. Five colored balls of glowing light came streaking into the room and slammed into the clown. I felt the impact too because it knocked him into me and I fell against the glass so hard I heard it crack. Then I was abruptly falling backwards through the window and out into open air. Pieces of glass fell around me and sparkled in the moonlight. The window was a rapidly receding hole with dark curtains blowing out of it. I saw the clown's pale face screaming something as he leaned out with an outstretched arm—as if _he_ would catch me. There was no way for me to grab his hand even if I had wanted to. I was falling so fast that the wind made a great rushing noise in my ears and fluttered my hair and clothes. I felt oddly weightless and noticed that the stars and half moon in the sky were beautiful. Funny that I could still notice something like that. My heart hurt with the weight of things left unsaid, things left undone—blue eyes I would never see again. Mercifully I felt myself sliding into unconsciousness and didn't fight it. I fainted before I hit the ground.

* * *

**8/14/08 EDIT:** I have decided to move all my author notes to the end of each chapter for aesthetic reasons. I have also gone back through and tidied up slightly. Nothing major. There were just a few awkward sentences with redundant words that I cleaned up. I also looked up some grammar rules and adjusted a few commas etc.

**A.N.:**I apologize for having an evil cliffhanger followed by a long time between updates. It wasn't on purpose...work just had me really busy. When I'm stressed, I get writer's block bad. I'll try to be less brutal with the cliffys in the future. (sweatdrop) This chapter was hard to write and had me stuck for a while.

Thanks again to all my reviewers. If I could give you guys cookies and hugs, I would. Hell, I would give you cake and ice cream too. It's much easier to write when I know y'all appreciate what I'm doing. Special hugs to Ariana Taniyama who sent me a very encouraging PM. This chapter is dedicated to you.

**I update my profile fairly regularly to show story progress etc. You can always check that out or send me a PM if you have any questions—like why the hell it's taking me so long to update.**

Btw—all my info on the kuji-kiri came from wikipedia and google—which are my main research tools for this particular fic. Any errors in understanding are due to that. I don't trust the English manga translations to be accurate, and I can't read Japanese, so I do my best with ye olde internet.


	5. Shattered Dreams

* * *

Ghost Hunt belongs to Fuyumi Ono. I am just playing with her characters.

* * *

**Echoes: A Ghost Hunt fan fiction**

**Chapter Five: Shattered Dreams**

_Falling..._

I willingly fell into darkness. The sensation of speed increased and made me feel uncomfortably dizzy as my other senses dulled. My stomach was seriously rebelling, and I wondered if I'd have the indignity of throwing up in midair added to everything else. Though it probably wouldn't be that noticeable on my messy corpse. Falling so far would certainly break most—if not all—of my bones. I hoped it would be fast—that it wouldn't hurt too much. Hopefully I would miss the sickening point of impact. I didn't really want first hand knowledge of how fragile a human body is—that awful vision in Urado's evil house had been bad enough to last me (pardon the pun) a lifetime.

My semi-deliberate faint was spoiled when a hissing noise split the air around me. It was immediately followed by a very loud crack of thunder and everything turned white. I flinched and squeezed my eyes shut to block out the overwhelming light. Had I just been hit by lightning? It was bright enough to make my eyes water. I lifted my arms to help shield my face and wondered what the hell was happening now.

Something seemed to grab me, and I felt a weird sideways lurch like I had been thrown. The light quickly dimmed to a bearable level. My eyes blinked open but all I could see at first was my own shadowy arms. I lowered them and saw a wide expanse of sparkling blue that rippled and glinted oddly as if it was in motion. The blueness covered my entire field of vision. It was pretty, and it was coming towards me at a high rate of speed.

_What...?_

Water. I recognized it as a lake at the same time I realized it wasn't coming towards me. I was falling into it. I didn't have time to wonder _how_ I had fallen from a dark sky in Tokyo only to land in a lake with sunlight sparkling over it's surface. I crashed into the water and the noisy splash obscured my vision. It hurt, and my breath was knocked out of my lungs so I was forced to gasp helplessly for a second. White froth and bubbles surrounded me but I didn't feel wet. That didn't stop me from being worried that I would drown.

I awkwardly put my hands out in an attempt to swim and discovered that I was strapped onto something. The straps were cutting across my left shoulder and my waist. I looked down trying to see what held me and saw a seat belt. Why was there a seat belt? I tried to open it, but the clasp refused to budge. When I looked back up, my surroundings had changed. I was now belted into the front seat of a car that was sinking. Water covered half of the windshield and the car was starting to tip forward at an angle. Icy water was pooling around my ankles. It made a rushing sound that reminded me of a stream as it poured in through the bottom of the car. Water was also dripping out of the air vents in increasing quantity.

The strap across my waist had pulled tight enough that it was hard to breathe, or maybe I was just a bit panicked watching the water level creep up the windows. Crap. I didn't want to drown. I tugged again at the seat belt. Movement to my right caught my attention and I jerked my head up. The driver's seat of the car was also occupied.

A man was slumped forward against the steering wheel. His seat belt was the only thing keeping him even that much upright. He had dark brown hair that covered his eyes and most of his face, but I could still see blood dripping down his chin. There was a lot of blood. The back of his gray sweater was soaked with it.

"...Hey," I said and poked him on the shoulder. It was my very unsubtle way of seeing if he still lived.

The man shifted slightly which caused me to jump. He muttered something under his breath but seemed to be mostly unconscious. The water was now up to my knees and covered almost the entire windshield. Streams of it were pouring from the vents now. The inside of the car was much darker and tinted blue. It was sinking fast. I tried to make myself calm down and directed my attention back to the damned seat belt. Was it just me, or was the air really getting harder to breathe?

To distract myself, I yelled at the man in the other seat. "Hey! Wake up! I could use some help here, dammit."

My eyes were focused on the piece of recalcitrant metal and plastic I was frantically trying to open. The clasp was disappearing underwater, and I pulled on it as hard as I could. It suddenly released and I overbalanced and fell hard against the dash of the car. I immediately turned and started trying to undo the stranger's seat belt. The seats were now disgustingly soggy. I had only a vague idea about how to escape from a car that was underwater. Was I supposed to roll down the windows?—try to break them out?—open the doors? Flashes of boring safety films shown in class mocked me—I had slept through most of them. I did know I had to try to save the person trapped with me as well as myself though.

His seat belt opened almost instantly. Unfortunately, he had totally passed out and ended up falling over on top of me. I was pushed back into my seat with a splash and the water level was definitely higher—it was lapping at the bottom of the windows.

"Wake up!" I yelled and tried to lever him off of me. The guy was heavy and the water was nearing my chin. He suddenly spoke and something about his voice was familiar.

"Mai, I'm so sorry. I tried...Dear..."

"Eh?! What...?"

He didn't seem to notice me shaking him and didn't speak again. The interior of the car was murky because it was now completely submerged. Light still filtered in from the rear window, but every other window showed only blue tinged darkness. I was wondering if the unknown man had really said my name when the water abruptly reached my nose and I accidentally inhaled some. I coughed and tilted my head up in an attempt to get one last breath of air. The water bubbled over my head and it was very cold. My ears popped painfully and I blinked my eyes. Why was I even in this car? I couldn't remember driving anywhere. Hadn't I been falling?

My lungs were burning from lack of air when the dark water swirled and suddenly became a much lighter shade of gray. And then I was falling again. I'm not sure what I fell through because I was extremely disoriented. I remember seeing...stars?...sparkly lights at any rate and softly glowing mists. Eventually my fall ended when I hit something hard enough to stun me.

* * *

"Wake up."

I heard the words, but made no sense of them. The room spun and I couldn't tell if I was laying down or not. Gah. What was wrong with me?

"Hey!...wake up."

Those words sounded so familiar... Someone poked me and I was finally able to open my eyes. A young foreign girl with blond hair was peering into my face. Her brown eyes lit up when she saw me move.

"Thank goodness, Aiko," she said and helped me to sit up. "You had me scared for a bit."

My long hair was tangled and I irritably pushed it out of my face and behind my ears. Usually I braided it whenever we were "playing", but this time I had forgotten. Sometimes having waist length hair was more trouble than it was worth. That thought made me pause. For some reason I had expected my hair to be much shorter.

"What did you see?"

"Uh..." I didn't know what to say.

Something was still wrong. I didn't feel like myself at all—though I had no idea what it usually felt like to be me either. I couldn't remember..._anything_. Why was my memory fuzzy? Abruptly I realized that I didn't even know her name. The blond girl was my friend—I remembered _that_, but who was she? Who was I? Had I hit my head or something and gotten amnesia?!

We were in her bedroom. I recognized it because she kept it unrepentantly Western. Most of her furniture and all of her decorations and books had come with her from America. I even recognized the circle we had painted on the wooden floor. The rug that usually hid it was tidily rolled up in the corner. We were both inside the circle, and the candles I remembered setting up to represent the four quarters were still burning. Her athane was where it belonged next to the altar, as was the chalice and the pentacle. The incense burner still sent up fitful puffs of smoke. That was as it should be. We had been conjuring...something.

"Aiko, are you ok?" she asked me. Her voice sounded worried.

"Mm...no," I finally admitted. It was hard to talk. Dizzy...why was I so dizzy? "Some of my memories are..."

"What?"

"I...I remember you, but...I don't remember _who_ you are," I said cautiously. Something told me to tread carefully so she wouldn't freak out.

Her brown eyes looked hurt for a moment and then narrowed. "That's not funny."

"I'm not lying."

She stared at me again and her intense gaze made me feel slightly uncomfortable. I realized that a part of me feared this unknown girl. Whatever she saw in my face caused her to look worried. I flinched slightly when she raised a hand and caressed my face. The gentle act startled me, and my reaction startled her.

"You have walked too far," she said with a frown. "That is one of the dangers of your talent, Aiko-chan."

"It is?" Talent? I didn't know what she was talking about.

"Yes. Don't worry. I can fix this."

She sounded confident at least. I watched her pick up the athane and grab my left hand. Before I could react, she cut me across my palm. Blood immediately started oozing out of the cut and I stared at her in shock. The blond girl cut her own left hand and then set her ritual knife down carefully. She clasped my left hand in hers so that our blood ran together. It hurt, but at the same time it felt familiar as if we had done something like that before.

"W-what are you doing?" I said hesitantly. I was afraid of what she might do if I made her angry.

"Shh. It's alright. There is a reason behind the **bloodletting**," she reassured.

The last word was in English, but I understood what she meant. Even stranger, I was calmed by it. The blond girl closed her eyes a moment, and when she opened them again the expression on her face was also calm. She reminded me of a priest performing a ritual of some sort.

"**I call my Sister back to herself**," she continued in English.

Her words were easily understood even though her accent was much different than our English teacher's. Months of practice conversations and reading her magic books had helped hone my language skills. We generally did all our rituals in English.

"**Blood calls to blood. What is bound cannot be broken. My Sister has travelled and lost her way. I call her back to herself by the power of our blood and our vow. Return to me, Aiko Fuji****—**"

Before I could hear her finish the name of the person she summoned, the room started spinning again. Something slammed into me and everything went black.

* * *

Gradually the darkness dimmed and I started to hear voices. Two girls were talking near me and it sounded like they were chanting. I opened my eyes to see what was going on and was surprised to find myself hovering near a ceiling. My hand looked transparent against the white surface when I tentatively reached out to touch it. Had I decided to astral walk? My control was good enough that it rarely happened by accident anymore. I had no memories of going into a trance, but I was definitely somewhere in the astral. I recognized the feeling of it. Where was I? The room wasn't one I recognized—but at the same time, something about it seemed familiar.

My confusion increased when stray bits of an odd dream began flickering in my head. The two girls in the room—one blond and foreign, the other Japanese with long brown hair—had been in it. I stared at them and tried to remember. There had been a school...no that wasn't it. I _had_ seen them in a school, but the elusive memories I searched for had happened in this room.

The circle they were sitting in looked strange to me. It glowed slightly. They had candles and what looked like occult items. I don't really know much about ritual magic—especially not Western magic. Lin-san is the only person I know who performs ritual magic. His form of sorcery looked different from whatever the girls were doing, but there were enough similarities for me to recognize that they were performing some sort of ritual. They each drank something from an elaborate cup, and that seemed to finish the spell because they started talking normally afterwards.

I drifted closer because I wanted to know what they were talking about. The blond girl was speaking in English, and her accent was so odd that I had no idea what she was saying—not that a different accent would have helped me much. The Japanese girl answered her in more familiarly accented English but I couldn't understand her either. Dammit. Was the whole world conspiring to mock me for sucking at English? This entire day had been filled with weird threats and comments spoken entirely in that hateful language. The blond girl looked up and smiled at her companion, and I involuntarily backed away from them.

I recognized her. She was that crazy girl—the one who shared the clown's laugh. She looked younger and more sane than she had in the first dream, but it was definitely her. Maybe I was seeing her some time before she earned those demonic black eyes? Her friend was sitting so I couldn't see her face, but the brown haired girl was also familiar. It took a moment to realize she was the girl from my dream who was apparently dating her teacher. I was surprised to see her and the foreign girl laughing together. The blond girl had seemed to really _hate_ this particular girl. Perhaps the boyfriend had driven them apart?

At the moment, the girls seemed to be close friends. They were bandaging matching cuts on their left hands. Now that I looked harder, I could see where blood had dripped down the blond girl's arm. Spots of it were also on the wooden floor. The blood caused another vague memory to flitter by—I saw a knife cutting _me_. But...my hand wasn't cut. Trying to make sense of that memory made my head hurt. I was even more confused when the brown haired girl took the blond's hand and lightly kissed the bandage. Then the brown haired girl lifted her head and kissed her friend on the mouth—not a peck either, a real kiss.

I stared at them a moment in shock. The blond girl passionately kissed her friend back, and I suddenly understood _why_ she had looked at "me" with lustful eyes in that earlier dream. Assuming the brown haired girl was also "Aiko", it even explained some of the crazy hostility. Had the blond been dumped for a teacher? They both kept kissing and I turned away feeling extremely embarrassed. Watching them make out was not something I wanted to do. I heard a moan and what sounded like a shirt being pulled off and fled.

The room dissolved into the more familiar gray mists. I kept moving through them until I saw the balls of light. The will-o-wisps had scared me at first, but I was used to them now. I wondered if _he_ would be here. The misty place was empty though. I swallowed my disappointment and told myself to not be selfish. I had already spoken with him that night. It wasn't fair of me to expect him to _always _be there when I wanted to see him. Even ghosts have their own motivations, and this particular spirit had more control over his "afterlife" than most. He might stop talking to me forever if I got too pushy about it.

My thoughts were interrupted by a faint voice. I turned around to see who was calling me, but no one was there. It sounded like Gene...

"...Mai?"

The mists started darkening again and I abruptly felt dizzy. What was happening? I fell backwards and slammed into something soft, but it hurt. Everything hurt: especially my head, my left arm, and my neck.

"Mai! Wake up."

My eyes opened in response to the command in that voice. I immediately ended up blinking because the light hurt my eyes. Ugh. I felt terrible. Someone lightly shook my right shoulder and I groggily turned my head in that direction.

"...Wha...?" I mumbled.

"Wake up, honey," a woman said.

I blinked again and finally recognized Ayako. Her red hair was tangled around her face and she looked extremely worried. Her eyes were red like she had been crying. Instead of her normal fashionable clothes, she was wearing dark green silk pajamas that looked slightly crumpled. Oh. She had been asleep on the couch, hadn't she? Did that mean I was somehow back inside Naru's apartment? Something about that seemed wrong, but I couldn't think what exactly.

"Ayako?" My mouth was so dry that it was hard to speak.

"Thank goodness..." Her voice trailed off and she started to cry again.

Her tears confused me. Why was she crying?

"Taniyama-san?"

I turned my head away from Ayako and was slightly surprised to see Lin-san standing on the other side of the bed. Except for his tie, he was still wearing the same clothes he had earlier that day, and I wondered if he ever slept. Lin-san also looked worried. Naru was sitting on the bed next to me and his face was expressionless. I squeaked in surprise when he suddenly bent down and peered into my face.

"Wh-what are you doing?" I stammered. My cheeks felt hot, so I was probably blushing yet again.

Naru ignored me and turned towards Lin-san. "It's her."

"Interesting. The spell worked then," Lin-san replied. His expression was very thoughtful, and I couldn't help but notice the odd look he gave Naru and then me. What was _that_ about?

"What worked?" I asked.

"We have _you_ back, Mai," Ayako said. Her voice sounded wobbly.

"Er...what do you mean?" Who did she expect me to be?

Their reactions were starting to make me feel very nervous. What exactly had happened? I didn't like feeling scared, and laying in bed while my coworkers all acted strange was not helping me to stay calm. It made me feel vulnerable and helpless. I tried to sit up and almost immediately fell backwards because the room spun. Why was I so dizzy?

"Idiot. Stay still."

I frowned at Naru and did my best to glare up at him. Did he have to call me stupid all the damn time? "If we are going to have a conversation, I want to sit. Laying down is making me feel...ill," I lied, not wanting to admit how scared I was.

Ayako sighed and then grabbed my right arm and pulled me up. "You are too stubborn," she complained. "Both of you."

I was too busy trying not to faint to reply. I felt so disoriented for a moment that I was afraid I was going to be sick. The dizziness passed and I willed my stomach to settle. Apparently Naru had been rearranging the pillows because Ayako leaned me back, and I was able to sort of half sit up against the headboard of the bed. It wasn't exactly sitting but made me feel better.

"Now will you be still?"

Naru looked like I had annoyed him again. I wondered why he cared if I made myself sick from moving too much or not.

"Maybe. Tell me what is going on."

"I hoped you could tell us that, Taniyama-san."

"_I'm_ not the one acting weird," I informed him. "Why was Ayako crying? Lin-san even looked _worried_, and you... What is going on?"

He raised an eyebrow at me. "You were possessed."

"Eh?!"

I glanced at all of them hoping it was some sort of a sick joke. They were all too serious. Holy crap. Possessed? I had been possessed?!

"Mai, do you remember anything?" Ayako said as she sat on the edge of the bed.

Behind her, I could see the clock now read six twenty-three a.m. The curtain on the window next to the bed was a pretty dark blue that really made her hair stand out in contrast. My breath caught in my throat as I stared at the curtain. Shouldn't it be torn? The memory of falling flashed before my eyes.

"I...I fell," I said while still staring at the window.

"How?" Lin-san asked.

I turned my attention from the window and glanced at the door. It was intact, but I remembered it being blown off it's hinges by Lin-san's shikigami.

"I was knocked through the glass..." Obviously I hadn't been, but that was what I remembered happening. The memory was making me shake. "By the shiki..."

My answer caused Lin-san's eyes to narrow. He didn't say anything and the room lapsed briefly into silence. I hugged myself with my right arm. The left hurt too much to move.

"You are certain?"

I nodded. "They broke through the door and hit the...c-clown. He fell on me and caused the window to shatter..."

Ayako raised one eyebrow and moved the curtain. Behind it, the glass of the window was in one piece. I caught a glimpse of blue sky and other buildings before she let it drop back into place.

"That must have been a dream," she said.

I didn't know what to think. It had felt so real. I touched my throat with my right hand and it hurt where I remembered being strangled. I wondered if I had bruises there.

"You were passed out when Matsuzaki-san and I came back with a ward," Naru told me. "The wards on the walls had all failed and we couldn't wake you."

Ayako made a huffy sound and crossed her arms. "There was _nothing_ wrong with my wards," she said defensively as if she was continuing an earlier argument.

Before Naru could reply, Lin-san started talking.

"Taniyama-san, you were forced out of your body and attacked again. Some sort of seal was put on you to prevent you from returning. I was finally able to break it using my shiki. We were able to wake you then, but..."

"What came back wasn't you," Naru finished. "Matsuzaki-san had to exorcise your body."

"Eh..." I was too stunned by all this to make any sort of coherent comment. And to think, I thought all that had happened were odd dreams. Crap. I wondered just how many shocks I was going to be able to take before they finally broke me. Who or what had possessed me?

"Did...did...er...w-what happened while I was p-possessed?"

Naru shook his head. "Nothing important."

The way he avoided my question was suspicious. Ayako and Lin-san were also silent. So something must have happened that would disturb me. It pissed me off to be treated like I couldn't handle bad news. Never mind if I was feeling fragile at the moment, I had a right to know.

"What happened from your perspective?"

I looked at Naru and realized that he was trying to distract me. Whatever had happened must have been _really _bad. I considered forcing the subject, but then decided his question was also valid. I wasn't being a coward by answering him, I was helping with the investigation, or so I tried to tell myself.

_Liar._

"The clown pretended to be you," I said and had the satisfaction of seeing him look surprised.

Then I told them what I remembered of my...dream?...experience. I edited out the parts where the fake Naru hit on me though because it was too embarrassing to mention when the real one was sitting next to me. Eventually I got through the sinking car and the two weird girls. I did mention their apparent relationship because I thought it was relevant considering my earlier dream.

"Damn, Mai..." Ayako said when I had finished. "That's a lot of weird stuff."

I had to laugh because she was right.

"You are sure the girls were the same?" Naru asked. "Specifically the one called Aiko?"

"I think so. I never saw her face."

He sighed and started to idly tap the fingers of his right hand on the bed. I was surprised when he winced and abruptly stopped. Naru curled his hand in a loose fist and carefully rested it on his lap.

"What did you do to your hand?"

"Nothing."

I didn't believe him. Before I could say anything, Lin-san distracted me by asking where the seal had been placed on my arm. I slowly moved my left arm so I could show him. It hurt even more now than it had last night. The bruises were a very dark black when I pushed up the purple sleeve of my pajama top.

"Here," I said and lightly touched the bruise above my left wrist. Seeing all those hand prints again turned my stomach. The startled expression on Lin-san's face wasn't very reassuring either.

"What is it?" Naru asked before I could.

"Her left hand was a poor choice. I'm afraid the two spells might counteract each other in some way. They were used in too close of a proximity to accurately predict the results."

Ayako and Naru seemed to understand him, but I didn't.

"Emm...what?"

"We had to use extreme measures to get you back, Taniyama-san. The seal almost severed you from your body. That is why another spirit was able to enter it."

I just blinked at Lin-san. "So...I died?"

"Not quite," Naru said. "You were far away though. Lin had to use a spell to call you back."

Something about that reminded me of..._something_. A calling spell? I remembered a knife cutting my hand. Feeling dazed I turned my left hand over...and there was a bandage across my palm.

"**Blood magic**..." I whispered.

I didn't even realize I had spoken in English until Naru and Lin-san both sharply turned their heads in my direction. I covered my mouth with my right hand and looked at them with horrified eyes. What had I just said? Why was it in _English?!_

"Mai?" Ayako said.

I shook my head in denial of what I had just said. Somehow I understood it. Blood magic?! What kind of sinister thing was _that?_ Ayako gripped my shoulder and I wondered if I looked like I was in danger of fainting. I certainly felt dizzy enough. Memories crashed through my brain—memories that weren't mine. Had I possessed the girl from my dream? I remembered being her—being Aiko. Why? Why would that happen?

"I-I saw a calling spell. In my dream. Someone—the blond girl—cut my hand to b-bind me..."

Ayako made a surprised sound when I said that.

"The same hand?" Lin-san asked.

I nodded and was surprised to hear him curse under his breath. I looked up curiously, still feeling dazed. Had I ever heard him curse before?

"It is not likely that I inadvertently picked the same hand," he said to Naru.

"Spiritual influence?"

"Probably. Whatever is behind this is definitely a magic user."

"That could be how it gets past wards so easily," Ayako said.

Naru snorted and she shot him a dirty look. It wasn't hard to guess that he had been criticizing the quality of her wards.

Lin-san nodded. "As we already surmised. Matsuzaki-san is right. It also got past my wards in the office."

"It was just a dream though...right?" I said hopefully.

Naru sighed. "No. It's too much of a coincidence."

"Blood spells are a powerful form of magic," Lin-san said. "They have significance even in dreams. Especially when the one who dreams also has a tendency to astral walk. Hopefully there won't be a weird reaction and the bonding I cast will hold."

"Bonding?" Did he mean the cut on my hand?

For some reason my question made Ayako snicker, and Naru suddenly looked away from me. Lin-san was obviously amused and I had to wonder why. The topic wasn't particularly funny or anything. He looked like he was teasing someone...and it wasn't _me_.

"Your blood was mixed with another's in the hopes that enough of a bond existed to call you back. The blood was used to magically strengthen that bond."

"Er...so who am I bonded with then?" I asked, though a part of me was already beginning to suspect the answer.

"Apparently to me," Naru said.

"Eh?!"

He turned his head to face me and looked annoyed. "It's not like I have venomous blood or something."

"No? If I suddenly become stuck up, I _am_ blaming you."

Ayako laughed at that remark, but I wasn't paying any attention to her. My attention was focused on my narcissistic boss who had inexplicably let Lin-san bond him to me. Why would he do that? His blue eyes held the smallest hint of confusion, and I thought maybe he was wondering the same thing.

* * *

**8/14/08 EDIT:** I have decided to move all my author notes to the end of each chapter for aesthetic reasons. I have also gone through and tweaked things a bit. Mainly fixing commas (my personal bane) and redundant words--stuff like that.

**A.N.:** Finally chapter Five! Sorry for the wait. It is double sized, so hopefully that will make up for it.

Thanks to my reviewers! You people give me the will to write. Especially this monster which is shaping up to be very long. I really appreciate it.

So...at least it's not a cliff hanger. I'm not sure about the way I ended this chapter, but their conversation was getting too long. Slowly this will progress in chapter six. I have actually started working on it, so hopefully it will be out quicker.

I know the little witchy segment is a bit cheesy. I was thinking "The Craft" when I wrote it because they _are_ teenage girls playing at magic. Their magic just happens to work. No offense or mockery is intended towards real witches. Likewise I totally made up the blood spells. I wouldn't put a real spell up in any case--even if I knew one.

Please leave me a review. They make me all happy and stuff. :D


	6. Promise

* * *

Ghost Hunt belongs to Fuyumi Ono. I am just playing with her characters.

* * *

**Echoes: A Ghost Hunt fan fiction**

**Chapter Six: Promise**

Ayako's laughter had a slight hysterical edge, so it wasn't the most comfortable thing to listen to. She didn't quite lose it, but it was close for a moment. I guess after all the stress she just needed to vent. While my comment was funny because it was true, I was not tempted to laugh. I doubted I could laugh without it turning into the crazy laughter I had dreaded earlier. Besides, the person who was the brunt of the joke was most definitely _not_ enjoying it.

I really wanted to ask Naru _why _he had let Lin-san use his blood. My boss was obviously pissed off from the teasing though, so I didn't get the chance. I knew there was no way he would answer me when he was in such a bad mood. His reaction made me wonder if the choice hadn't been entirely voluntary. It hadn't been _my_ choice either, but that didn't stop me from feeling vaguely guilty about it.

_Great_. _He's probably going to take it out on me..._

What did it mean that we were blood bonded? Even the odd stolen memories—Aiko's memories—couldn't tell me what it meant exactly. I hoped Naru hadn't been made a candidate because of my poorly hidden crush on him. _Gah_. If that was the case, no wonder he was angry. He hated being forced to do _anything,_ and he had made it quite clear that he didn't return my feelings last summer...

Ayako looked like she was just waiting for me to say something else she could tease him about. Naru must have been especially obnoxious for her to be so merciless. Ayako often argued with him, but it wasn't normal for her to be quite so vindictive. Even if he probably deserved it, I decided there was no way I was going to add to the teasing—chances were good he would hold a grudge if I picked on him now. Naru hid it well, but I could tell he was almost as tired and stressed out as me. Reluctantly I decided to save my questions for later—when no one else was around to tease either of us.

Our discussion didn't last much longer anyway because everyone was tired. I had technically been "asleep" for most of the night, but astral travel, and being attacked and then possessed, plus whatever lingering affects were still there from the medicine I was given at the hospital soon had me yawning and unable to coherently talk. I really didn't expect to fall sleep easily—not for the next hundred years or so—but somehow I must have. Or I passed out again. I really don't know which it was, or if it was a mixture of both. At any rate my memories of that night—morning?—are hazy after this point. The next thing I was aware of was a faint beeping noise.

It was irritating and insistent and consequently not easily ignored. I sleepily rolled over on my side thinking such an annoying noise had to be my alarm clock. _Crap_. Was it already time for school? I was still so tired... The movement caused me to put my weight on my left arm and the sudden pain quickly had me rolling onto my back. I winced and blinked my eyes open to see a rectangle of bright light slanting across the ceiling. That made me realize I wasn't at home because _my_ room didn't have a window on _that_ wall. _Where...? _Oh. I supposed I must still be in Naru's house, but why was it so bright? Was it already afternoon? A glance to my right at the clock on the table showed that it was one forty-five p.m. _Damn._ I felt embarrassed for sleeping so late, but at the same time I almost wished I hadn't woken up.

I closed my eyes again in a lame attempt to shut out reality. Wouldn't it have been nice if all the crap that had happened to me had only been a bad dream? Too bad that wasn't the way of it. My memories—even the vague ones—from the night before weren't comforting at all. I had somehow managed to get some rest without dreams, but none of the problems facing me had been solved. I was still being stalked by some creepy clown spirit that could apparently attack me whenever it wanted to. Oh yeah, there was also that possession thing that everyone had avoided telling me about. Just pondering what could have happened that was so bad no one wanted to talk about it made my stomach feel queasy.

I was sorely tempted to just pull the covers over my head and retreat back into sleep. That would be one way to avoid having to deal with the mess my life had become. Except I knew it was unlikely that sleep would remain a haven. My dreams always tended to be _more _and with my luck I'd probably run into the clown or that crazy schoolgirl again. I couldn't help sighing unhappily at the realization. No matter what I chose, I was pretty much screwed. Hiding would not help; all it would accomplish would be to make me look like a coward.

The beeping was still going on at odd intervals and it wasn't coming from the clock. Did I even want to know what was causing it? The sound had a tinny electronic quality that my mind kept connecting to the image of a bomb slowly counting down. I smiled at the thought because it was so very unlikely. Ghosts did not bother with explosives as far as I knew.

I slowly sat up and was relieved to find I actually felt better. I was tired and my arm still hurt, but the weird dizziness and disorientation were gone. The room looked disconcertingly normal considering the odd...dream?...attack that had occurred there last night. However the décor had been changed while I slept. The white walls now had wards painted directly on them and I wondered when that had happened. Presumably the paint was more effective than the paper charms had been. The neat designs actually looked more decorative than anything else but I recognized them for what they were. Another change was the person sitting in the light blue chair in the corner.

Her gleaming black hair was cut so it fell in a perfectly precise line across her jaw, and she was looking intently at something she held in her hands. I couldn't immediately see her face, but I recognized her anyway. She was curled up in the chair with her feet resting against one arm while she leaned against the other—which was pretty impressive considering she was wearing a tight formal kimono.

Hara Masako is a very famous T.V. Medium. She is beautiful and knows it, and she has the superior attitude one might expect a celebrity to have. Masako sees spirits as if they were real people, and she can also channel them through her own body so they can communicate with others. She is widely acknowledged as the best Spirit Channeler in Japan. Her talents aren't perfect, particularly when it comes to spirits that move around, but she has proved to be useful on several cases. Naru hires her on a contract basis to see if spirits are really haunting a place. On very rare occasions she also performs her version of an exorcism.

Masako is my age—almost exactly—but she has the poise of a much older person. No teenage awkwardness ever seems to plague her. She usually dresses in kimonos and they emphasize how pretty and tiny she is. I think she chooses traditional dress to make herself seem more 'otherworldly' for her T.V. image, but she insists she just prefers kimonos over Western clothes. Her eyes are enormous and tend to be varying shades of gray. They contrast nicely with her pale skin and jet black hair to make her resemble a doll. You know, one of those really expensive hand painted dolls that end up in museums because normal people can't afford them.

I try to be friendly to her, but sometimes it's hard. Masako has a way of pissing me off and making me call her 'that Masako'. She also has a crush on Naru and will try anything to get his attention. Okay, maybe not _anything_, but she does tend to throw herself into his arms at every opportunity. I'm a bit jealous of her boldness, which probably colors my impressions of her. Underneath all the surface pettiness she is a good person though, and I know I can rely on her.

I was very surprised to find her sitting in "my" room. Wasn't she supposed to be out of town on a media tour or something?

"M-Masako?"

Instead of answering, she held up one hand and then went back to fiddling with whatever she was holding. I wondered if she was texting someone. The thing she was holding was pink and vaguely cellphone shaped. There were more beeping sounds and I realized they were being caused by whatever she was doing. Finally she smiled down at her hands just as a particularly loud sequence of beeps occurred that slowly turned into a song.

"Got you bastard...ha!" she muttered fiercely under her breath.

I blinked and wondered if I'd really heard her say that. The very prim Medium _never _cursed. What in the world was she doing? Masako pushed a button and then closed the rectangular thing she was holding. It looked suspiciously like a Nintendo DS.

"Sorry Mai, I have been trying to beat that boss for a while," she said as she finally looked at me.

"Boss?"

Was she actually playing a video game? _Masako _played video games? No way. My face must have shown how surprised I felt, because Masako suddenly looked annoyed.

"Watching you sleep is very dull. Of course I brought something along to hold my interest. What did you expect me to do to pass the time, ikebana?"

"Emm...well..."

_Ehehehe_

Embarrassingly enough, that was pretty much what I _had _expected. Masako often seemed to be a person from the past—with her kimonos and 'I'm-so-mysterious' attitude—so I tended to be surprised when she did _anything _like a "normal" teenager. The traditional floral arrangements that ikebana entailed just seemed like something she would be into—more so than video games anyway.

"Hn. You really should have more common sense," she snapped scornfully.

"Why are you here?" I said in attempt to change the subject. Even though I felt better, I didn't feel like fighting with her.

Masako's gray eyes narrowed and then she turned her head away sharply. Apparently she was determined to be mad.

"Naru called me yesterday. He seems to think you need protection from some sort of evil spirit." Her tone plainly indicated that she didn't believe it was true. "I'm surprised you got him to swallow such an idiotic story," she added spitefully. "Evil clowns...that is beyond stupid even for you."

_Whatever..._

Other than rolling my eyes, I ignored her and carefully got out of bed. I was tempted to comment that pretending such a thing in order to get Naru's attention was more along the lines of something _she_ would pull, but I didn't. She was probably just jealous that I was staying in his house.

This time the floor stayed steady under my feet and that was reassuring. I didn't like feeling sick and helpless. The events of yesterday seemed to cling to me and I felt dirty. I could still feel the touch of the clown's hands on my skin and it caused an awful crawling sensation like ants or something were on me. I knew it was psychological, but that did not stop me from wanting to get the clown's taint off. Hopefully a shower would help.

"I'm going to wash up," I said and started towards the door.

Masako sighed and gracefully managed to uncurl herself from the chair. Her eyes focused on my neck and she frowned. Great...that probably meant I had even more bruises than I remembered. I was surprised when she picked up a battered suitcase that had been sitting next to her chair. I recognized it as the one I kept in my bedroom closet.

"Ayako packed you some clothes," she said and led the way into the bathroom.

Well that answered my question as to _who _had picked my Hello Kitty pajamas instead of the more grown up looking ones I usually wore on cases. I hoped Ayako had at least picked out decent clothes for me to wear.

I paused in the doorway because the bathroom had also been changed. Warded charm papers now adorned every wall—it even looked like elaborate metal charms were inside the shower stall. I sort of stopped and stared when I noticed those. _Why? _Why was Naru going to such lengths to redecorate his house for me? I also wondered if every room was going to be like this. _Gah._ Was such a thing really necessary?

Masako actually seemed to understand some of what I was feeling. She patted me on the arm as she set the suitcase down. "Lin-san though it was better to over-ward everything than to leave any holes for the spirit to enter."

"Ehh...but..." I stopped because I had no idea what I wanted to say. Sure it was probably better to be safe than sorry, but this was too much.

At least I wouldn't have to worry about being attacked like some girl in a cliched horror movie. There was no way the clown was getting through all those wards. Masako helped me take off my top. Her help was necessary because my left arm hurt too much to move easily. She looked disturbed when she saw all the bruises and I could tell she was worried. It was very odd to see Masako worried about _me_. I declined further assistance because I did not think it was necessary. I was hurt, sure, but not an invalid.

"I'm not helpless."

"Ah. Of course not," Masako replied. "We are waiting a meeting on you, so don't take too long," she added as she left the room and shut the door.

I stared at the door for a moment before turning the lock. It was unlikely that anyone would try and walk in on me, but that was no reason to leave myself open to embarrassment. I wanted at least a little time to myself to assess the damage. It was still hard to believe that this time yesterday I had been fine with no odd scariness in my life.

My left arm was swollen and even more hand prints had appeared, but these were more shades of purple-ish gray than black—I supposed they were secondary bruises. No wonder Masako had looked upset. My knees were bruised and scabbed over, but otherwise healing well. There were new dark purple hand prints around my neck. Seeing those marks reflected in the mirror made me pause and stare for a moment. I remembered the icy feel of the clown's hands as they closed around my neck and shivered. Obviously there had been some sort of a real element to that dream attack. I still looked too pale and slightly shocked. The dark smudges were fainter, but still visible under my eyes. After all the "fun" of the previous twenty-four hours, I actually did resemble a ghost. Lovely.

I decided not to think about it and tried to focus only on getting clean. The hot water helped clear my head and actually eased the ache in my left arm. I let it pound down on me until it started to cool off. The wards in the shower were actually charm necklaces that had been hung up. I felt better seeing that they weren't a permanent addition.

I was also happy to see that Ayako had thoughtfully packed me several long sleeved T-shirts. I wouldn't look fashionable, but I would be comfortable and the worst of the bruises would be covered. I put on a pair of jeans instead of a skirt because my knees were all scabby. The shirt I chose was a soft gray color which fit my mood. It was one I usually only wore to jog in because it was so baggy. The bagginess made it easier to get on though considering my left arm was practically immobile. I'm not even going to comment on how difficult it was to fasten my bra—ouch is an understatement—but there was no way I was going to run around without one either. I probably should have sucked it up and called Masako for help rather than dealing with it myself, but I didn't want to. Especially not after declaring that I wasn't helpless so she would leave.

All in all, I felt more like my normal self when I left the bathroom. I didn't bother putting on shoes and the carpet was soft under my feet. There wasn't a brush among the things Ayako packed for me, so my wet hair was just sort of finger combed—fortunately it was short enough that it wasn't a complete tangled mess. I looked less like a ghost with my arm covered. When I made a face at my reflection, I looked more like me than a disaster victim. That was a definite improvement.

"My" room was empty when I checked it, though someone had made the bed. I set my suitcase down near the door and wandered back down the hallway. The walls of the hallway were still plain and not warded. The doors along it were still closed, and I saw no reason to randomly try opening them. The sounds of quiet conversation drifted from the room with the giant window. I peeked in and was again struck by the view—it really was wonderful even in daylight.

Masako was sitting on the black couch and sipping a cup of what was probably tea. She was talking to a young foreign man with short blond hair and brilliant blue eyes. His green and white striped polo shirt was worn with khakis and gave him a preppy look. He was flipping through some sort of large hard bound book and frowning at whatever she was saying, but he broke into a smile that lit up his face when he noticed me standing in the doorway.

John Brown is probably one of the kindest people I know. He is very helpful and a good person to talk to. He is always willing to give advice if you ask him. John is a Catholic Priest and he works in an orphanage run by the Church. He is from Australia and speaks fluent—if slightly odd—Japanese. (It is not every day you meet a foreigner who speaks Kansai-ben.)

He is an official exorcist for the Church and it is as an exorcist that he sometimes works for S.P.R. John is young to have such a high official rank—he is only twenty-one years old. He was already an exorcist when I met him three years ago, which means he was ordained while still a teenager. I don't know a lot about the Catholic Church, but I know enough to understand how rare that is. John is humble and never acknowledges that his own accomplishments are a bit remarkable. Instead he acts a bit shy and unsure of himself in social situations. This is in sharp contrast to the competence he displays when working in his official capacity.

I'm not sure why John takes time out from his other duties to help Naru hunt ghosts. I guess it's maybe because he is interested in the paranormal. John easily knows as much as Bou-san when it comes to famous psychics and such—though he seems to lack the monk's fanboy trait.

"Mai-san, it's good to see you," he said and stood up.

"John." I managed a small, but sincere smile. Normally I would have grinned in welcome, but the stress had worn me down.

It had been a month or so since he had helped us on a case. Too bad I only got to see him now under such bad circumstances. I really didn't like seeing the concerned expression in his eyes. Was everyone going to look at me like that?

"Sorry," he said awkwardly and looked embarrassed. "I didn't mean to stare. The bruises are just..."

My right hand unconsciously went up to my neck in a belated attempt to cover them. Why hadn't Ayako thought to pack me some turtleneck sweaters? They were in the same drawer as most of my long sleeved T-shirts and the extra coverage would be nice. It might be a little uncomfortable to wear a sweater in midsummer but... I abruptly realized how silly I was acting. Nothing was going to hide the fact that I'd been hurt from my friends; it was stupid to try and pretend otherwise. I shook my head and made myself smile again. "Don't worry about it."

Masako sniffed from her place on the couch. "You took so long that the meeting was postponed until after lunch."

"Eh...really? Sorry about that," I said to them both.

The thought of food made my stomach growl audibly and I laughed feeling embarrassed. It wasn't my fault though. I hadn't eaten anything since lunch at school the day before—so of course I was hungry now.

Masako had raised one sleeve of her pale pink kimono so it covered her mouth, but her eyes showed she was laughing at me. I expected some sort of tart comment from her—no doubt she would use the opportunity to point out my low upbringing or lack of manners or such. Before she could say anything, John diffused the impending argument.

"I'm hungry too," he admitted. "Besides Matsuzaki-san just started cooking. There is no point in discussing anything until after she is done." He paused and laughed nervously. "We are also waiting for Shibuya-san to return."

There was more than one thing odd about what he had just said, but my mind seized on the last part.

"Naru? Where did he go?"

I was thinking how weird it was for all of us to be hanging out in his house while he wasn't there. Naru is a privacy freak—I am still not allowed inside his personal office unless he is in there. Why in the world had he agreed to let everyone stay unsupervised while he ran off somewhere?

"He went out to investigate something soon after I arrived," Masako said with a faint frown.

"I believe Yasuhara-san called him," John added.

"Oh," was my brilliant answer. Apparently a whole lot of stuff had happened while I slept. I knew that Naru trusted John though, so maybe it wasn't so weird that he had left. No doubt he intended for John and Lin-san to keep the rest of us in line.

A crash from the direction of the kitchen reminded me of the other thing John had mentioned. "Er...did you say that Ayako was cooking?"

Both Masako and John nodded with nearly identical looks of trepidation on their faces. "I tried to talk her out of it, but that woman wouldn't listen," Masako added.

"Ehh..." I shared their unease. Not because Ayako was a bad cook—she often cooked for us—but because she was using Naru's kitchen to do it in. No matter how I tried, I couldn't imagine him being okay with _that_.

There was another loud clatter from the vicinity of the kitchen. _Oh hell. _What was Ayako doing in there?

Masako stood up with an alarmed look on her face. "We should make sure she isn't breaking things," the Medium commented.

I nodded in agreement. Knowing Naru, whatever he had by way of cookware would be expensive and top quality. While Ayako probably could afford to replace such things, it would be best to avoid that necessity. Naru had freaked out the one time I had accidentally broken a tray of teacups at the office. I didn't really want to see his reaction if something happened in his home.

Masako led the way to the kitchen. I felt a bit like an idiot for trailing after the bossy girl, but John was also following so we were idiots together. He caught my eye and shrugged as if to say, _'what else can we do?'_ I rolled my eyes in reply and then had to stop suddenly in order to avoid bumping into Masako. For some reason she was standing motionless right in the middle of the kitchen doorway.

I glared at the back of her head and was about to say something rude when the occupants of the kitchen captured my attention. Ayako was standing in front of the stove. She had her long red hair tied back in a tail and was dressed in a short dark purple skirt with a matching sleeveless top. A plain white apron protected her clothes. Bou-san was standing next to her. Today the monk was wearing a black T-shirt with his usual jeans. One of his hands was reaching towards whatever she was cooking while he leaned in and appeared to be whispering something in her ear. I couldn't hear what he said, but it apparently made her angry. Or they were just continuing their never ending argument.

"Stop that, you idiot. Do you want it to burn?!"

"Tch. You act like I don't know how to cook, woman."

"I don't know that you know how to cook." Ayako smacked his hand away and raised the spatula she was holding in a threatening manner. Bou-san grinned at her as if he was used to such treatment.

"The last time you set off the smoke alarms, remember? I am still trying to get smoke stains off the wallpaper..."

Ayako's voice trailed off and her eyes widened as she noticed us standing in the doorway. It was interesting to see her of all people blush. Bou-san turned to see what she was looking at and suddenly looked flustered. I wondered why in the world they were reacting that way.

"Uh...hi," the monk said with an awkward grin. He took a casual step away from Ayako who had turned back to the stove and seemed very intent on the food she was preparing. "How long have you all been standing there?"

Masako raised one eyebrow at him. "Why are you so nervous?" she asked bluntly and walked past to sit down at the table in the alcove.

"Eh?...I have no idea what you are talking abou—" Bou-san's words cut off when Ayako abruptly smacked him in the side.

"Because he is an idiot," the red haired woman muttered under her breath. "There is a fresh pot of tea if you want some, Mai," she said in a more normal tone and pointed out the teapot.

"Umm...okay."

Bou-san opened a cabinet and pulled out a mug, which he then handed to me. I smiled in thanks. It felt a bit weird to be pouring myself a cup of tea in Naru's kitchen using his cups. Come to think of it, wasn't it weird that Bou-san knew where the cups were kept? Gah. Had they gone through all of Naru's cabinets as soon as he left, or had he told them where things were?

"Are you feeling better, Mai?"

The monk's question broke me out of my worried musing. "Mm," I said with a nod. My arm still hurt quite a bit, but I saw no reason to complain about it. I did feel better and, more importantly, surrounded by my eccentric coworkers I also felt safe. Well safe until the 'big boss' arrived and saw what we were doing in his kitchen. "Hey, is it okay to be doing this?"

Bou-san leaned his back against the counter next to me and sighed. "Well, I'm sure Naru will get over it...eventually."

"Ehhh..." I did not share his confidence.

Ayako was still cooking, but she was also listening to our conversation. "It will do him good to eat a decent meal," she snapped. "All he had in his refrigerator was half of a pizza. No wonder he is so skinny living on junk food and ramen. It's not healthy. I had to go to the store and buy groceries just to make something edible!"

She finished her rant with an angry glare as if daring us to contradict her. Masako and John were both silent, as was Bou-san. I felt a tad embarrassed because sometimes _I_ lived on ramen, so I didn't feel like it was fair to judge Naru for doing the same.

"Maybe he just doesn't like to cook?" I said in sort of a lame defense.

Ayako frowned at me and then shrugged. "I'm not making a mess," she said. "I will wash the dishes later. I do like to cook so it's all good."

Whatever she was cooking smelled delicious. I couldn't help but hope the price of the dinner would be worth it.

Masako chose that moment to speak up. "So cooking is what they call that these days," she said slyly. I had no idea what she meant, but I could tell from the way her eyes gleamed over her kimono sleeve that she was teasing someone. "Do they teach that technique in culinary school?"

Ayako's cheeks flushed and she set a pan down on the stove with a loud clang. "You know, I really don't think your opinion was asked for_ Hara-san_."

"It's a free service, _Matsuzaki-san_."

"Oh?"

_Oh great_, I thought. Ayako and Masako were shooting unfriendly looking glares at each other. It looked like a cat fight was imminent. There was no way this was going to end well.

Bou-san seemed to agree with me. "John, come help me distract them," he said to the blond priest. "Mai, you go out in the other room and head Naru off."

"What?"

He ignored my question and gently pushed me out the kitchen door. The last thing I saw before the door swung shut was John being dragged towards the table by Bou-san.

"...Huh." I couldn't help voicing my astonishment. Another loud crash came from the kitchen and I winced. Did I even want to know what was going on in there?

Someone sighed close to my ear and I jumped, spilling tea across my right hand. Fortunately it had cooled so it didn't burn me. I almost dropped the cup though, and would have except the person standing behind me grabbed it.

"I didn't mean to startle you. Is your hand all right?"

_Speak of the devil..._

"Umm...yeah," I said and laughed. I hate that I laugh when I'm nervous, but it isn't something I can control. Having Naru just suddenly appear like that while Ayako and company were wreaking havoc in his kitchen definitely made me nervous.

"Really?" he said and raised one eyebrow. "Why did Bou-san just push you out of the kitchen?"

_Ehehehehe...oh hell._

I looked in his dark blue eyes and my mind embarrassingly went blank. "Uh...I'm supposed to distract you," I blurted out. "Because...Ayako is...umm...cooking." I felt my cheeks heat up as I realized what I had just said. Somehow I didn't think complete honesty was what Bou-san had in mind when he told me to 'head Naru off'.

Naru rarely looks surprised. He did when I said that though, and his eyes narrowed as he frowned at the closed kitchen door. I expected him to go through the door and—maybe not yell—but at least to express his displeasure with the situation. Instead he sighed again and then turned back towards me.

I noticed how tired he looked then and couldn't help worrying. "Did you ever get any sleep at all?"

"No. There were too many things to do."

So it was my fault he looked like that.

"No it's not, idiot," he said and looked exasperated.

I frowned back at him because it was annoying when he seemed to read my thoughts. There was a muffled clang in the kitchen that caused us both to look at the door. Someone yelled.

"Good grief. What are they doing in there?" I couldn't help muttering.

"I don't even want to know," Naru said with a sigh.

He walked across the room and flopped down on the black couch in a way that showed how tired he was more clearly than the faint circles under his eyes did. I felt sort of stupid standing near the door, so I followed him. It occurred to me that this was probably a good chance to ask about the whole blood bond thing. How was I going to bring that up though?

"Mai."

"Hm?" I looked up from my close inspection of the mug I was holding. I hadn't really been seeing it while I wondered what to do.

"Sit down," Naru said without bothering to open his eyes.

The way he said it was rude—like I was some sort of naughty pet. "I'm not a dog," I grumbled, but I sat down next to him anyway.

I wanted to be mad at him, but it was hard. Naru always looked good to me, but he looked especially cute with his head resting on the back of the couch and his eyes closed. His black hair was tousled and I had to resist reaching over and brushing it out of his eyes. Why did I have to have such an unhealthy fixation with my boss? It was embarrassing.

"Well?" he said after a moment of semi awkward silence. It was semi awkward for me anyway because I belatedly realized I had been staring at him the entire time.

"Well what?"

He turned his head in my direction and opened his eyes. There was a slight glint in their blue depths that in anyone else I would have thought was amusement. "Distract me."

* * *

**A.N. **First I want to apologize for the extremely long delay between updates. I went through a rough patch last summer which resulted in depression and writer's block from hell. I have managed to conquer my writer's block through the virtues (and hell) of NaNoWriMo. After writing over 50,000 words in a month, I think I can manage to update this story more regularly. Hopefully there will be no more giant pauses between chapters.

You can always check my profile if you are wondering what is going on with my stories. I do keep it updated with current information under the "Story Status" section.

Thank you so much to everyone who has left me a review. I am sorry that I have not replied to all of them. It has been so long since I wrote chapter five that I can't remember who I replied to. I did read and enjoy every review though—I have them all saved—even the ones that just asked when/if I was ever going to update. It makes me happy to know that people are enjoying my story enough to comment on it.

I will try harder to keep up with any reviews in the future and send back timely replies.

Now to specific chapter six notes:

You might have noticed all the chapter titles are songs (and that I have a fondness for 80's tunes). Sometimes the meaning is a bit obscure unless you read all of the lyrics. I now have an Echoes song list up in my profile. It lists songs and artists so you can look up the lyrics if you want.

Hopefully this doesn't end too weird. This is sort of the rough draft version of chapter six. I wanted to update today so I went ahead and published it. I might go back--actually most likely I will go back and tweak a bit.

**Ikebana** is the Japanese Art of floral arranging. There is a lot more to it than just arranging flowers in a pretty way. I did not feel like it was necessary to go into detail though because it is just mentioned as sort of a joke.

I decided not to attempt John's odd manner of speaking. I don't understand enough Japanese to know _why_ Kansei-ben is funny other than knowing that comedians use it. Likewise I didn't want to make him sound like he was from Texas which is what some (bad) dubs do with that accent. (I'm from Texas and I don't find it to be a particularly funny or hicky accent...probably because it's _my_ accent.) In this story he just speaks kind of formally.

Hopefully everyone is at least semi-in character. I have spent a month with them in a slightly different GH Universe and it was difficult to get back into Echoes mode. I did try to get them right. I've never tried writing John much, and Masako has a different personality in my NaNo story. Lastly, this chapter is a bit more lighthearted than the others because poor Mai needs a break. Hopefully it wasn't dull. My intent was to add some humor into a tense situation. The action should pick up again soon. And yes, we will find out what happened regarding Mai's possession...it just did not fit in with the rest of this particular chapter.

Thanks for reading. =D


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